KUALA LUMPUR, April 14 — Malaysia Airlines will be reinstating one-time weekly flights to Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Miri beginning this week following requests by both the Sabah and Sarawak state governments.
In a statement today, Malaysia Airlines said it would operate flights for the Kuala Lumpur-Kota Kinabalu-Kuala Lumpur and Kuala Lumpur-Miri-Kuala Lumpur sectors on Thursdays and for the Kuala Lumpur-Kuching-Kuala Lumpur sector on Fridays.
Its sister airline, MASwings, will reinstate services on the Kuching-Sibu-Kuching route, a route it previously serviced under the Public Service Obligation, until it was commercialised and opened to other airlines to operate in January 2019.
MASwings will maintain its daily flight schedule on the Miri-Bintulu-Miri and Sibu-Bintulu-Sibu routes.
The crossings between Kuala Lumpur to Sabah and Sarawak will be operated by Malaysia Airlines’ Boeing 737-800 aircraft while the intrastate flights in Sarawak will be operated by the ATR 72.
“Following the nationwide movement control order (MCO) by the government of Malaysia for the period between March 18 and April 28, all airlines under the Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) have had to significantly reduce services across its entire network.
“However, as the national airline of the country, we continue to serve the nation and our network by maintaining domestic and international connectivity mostly to facilitate essential movements,” MAG group chief executive officer Captain Izham Ismail said.
Malaysia Airlines’ domestic services in Peninsular Malaysia are currently supported by Firefly and the airline continues to mount rescue and repatriation flights worldwide.
“We also ensure global supply chains are maintained for the most time-sensitive supplies via MABkargo, and we are happy for MASwings to continue connectivity between Kuching and Sibu for the sake of the local community there, besides our usual services,” he said.
— Bernama
