News
Malaysia Airlines scraps premium economy plans and retains first class
May 26th 2017
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) CEO, Peter Bellew, on Wednesday told Orient Aviation the airline has decided to scrap plans for a premium economy class cabin on its incoming fleet of six on-lease A350s. Read More »
“We believe premium economy would damage our business class revenue in a very negative way,” Bellew said, and added the airline would be “creating a world-class business class product in the next 12 months and that needs sharp focus”.
The MAB boss also revealed another decision: the airline will retain its first class product with the arrival of the A350s, although at four seats it will be a smaller cabin than the eight first suites it has on its six A380s. Bellew said: “We have more demand than four seats right now. It is actually not enough.”
MAB’s A350s will be configured with four first class suites, 35 business and 247 economy seats. The airline will install 25 extra leg room seats in the economy cabin that can be bought as an ancillary add-on. “Twenty five seats [in economy] will have a larger 36-inch pitch and will be sold as XL-size,” Bellew said.
MAB is due to commit to a 25-30-strong wide body order this year and is evaluating the A330neo, A350 and B787-9. “We do not have an attractive enough offer yet. We are waiting for a good offer from the manufacturers,” Bellew said.
This week the carrier announced a large-scale devaluation of its Enrich frequent flyer programme from June 10, including revenue based redemptions “as the miles required for redemption will be tied to fares and vary according to seat availability, passenger demand and seasonality”, MAB said.
