CAPA: There is Potential in MAB – British Airways Code-Share

11th Dec 2015

The Centre for Aviation (CAPA) suggested on Thursday that Malaysia Airlines and British Airways should sit together and forge a code-share agreement, as this would be beneficial to both airlines.

CAPA said:

There should be opportunities to relook at a partnership with British Airways. Such a partnership could also evolve over time into a joint venture on the London-Kuala Lumpur route.

The move would make sense after Malaysia Airlines canceled most of its European routes, except for London, and signed a partnership with another Oneworld member, Emirates, to allow Malaysia passengers to travel to Europe with.

According to CAPA, Kuala Lumpur to London would not be the only service that the MAB-BA alliance would lead to:

London remains a large and strategically critical business market for MAB. There are also opportunities to use British Airways to offer connections to North America. MAB currently works with American Airlines beyond London, but does not yet work closely with British Airways.

British Airways Launches New Dreamliner to Kuala Lumpur

Asked about the potential deal, British Airways Head of Asia Pacific Sales Robert Williams said:

We work with Malaysia Airline within the Oneworld alliance at the moment and that’s the relationship that we have. We welcome competitions. It’s a very healthy part of our industry. We have many partners and many code-sharing agreements with many carriers.

British Airways re-commenced daily flights from Heathrow Airport’s Terminal 5 to Malaysia on 27^th May this year following a decade of absence from Kuala Lumpur.

The U.K. carrier today also launched a new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, which will take passengers to Kuala Lumpur International Airport. This prompted MAB Managing Director Badlisham Ghazali to hope that their partner would add more flights from London to Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia Airlines Holdings Berhad is also in talks with several other international carriers to start operations to Kuala Lumpur. This should be officially announced in the first quarter of 2016.