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Malaysia Airlines announces 11 routes to China
November 11th 2016
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) will launch eleven routes from Malaysia to Mainland China from early 2017. Read More » The rapid expansion was announced last Friday by Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak, during a visit to the Mainland.
"Malaysia Airlines plans to triple our Chinese business in the next five years. I see potential for direct flights to 20 Chinese cities from Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching by 2019," said MAB CEO, Peter Bellew, who added six of the carrier’s new destinations had never been served by MAB until now.
The oneworld member’s China flights will be: Kuala Lumpur to Haikou, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu, and Chongqing, Penang to both Shenzhen and Shanghai, and Kota Kinabalu to Tianjin. All the flights will be operated by MAB’s two-class B737-800s.
MAB plans to launch a second daily Kuala Lumpur-Shanghai service in April, although this service has not been confirmed due to slot constraints at Pudong.
In China with prime minister Razak, Malaysian transport minister, Liow Tiong Lai, said he was "confident that Malaysia's requests [for better slots] will receive a very positive response” from his Mainland counterpart, Li Xiao Peng. Liow said Li had “directed his officers to expedite these matters at the working level".
