MAS resumes some flights for Malaysians stuck abroad in Covid-19 pandemic

KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — Malaysia Airlines is reinstating some flights in April and May for Malaysians stranded abroad because of travel restrictions governments have imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

MAB Group chief executive officer Captain Izham Ismail said that it was their duty to ensure Malaysia remained accessible.

“Many customers from Malaysians to foreigners have reached out to our global offices requesting for available flights mostly between Kuala Lumpur to Australia and New Zealand as well as to Kuala Lumpur onward to London.

“Being a network carrier, Malaysia Airlines is able to maintain connectivity and bring our customers directly or closest to their intended destination,” he said in a statement today.

Flights being reinstated are those to and from Auckland, New Zealand; Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, Australia; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Guangzhou, China. The complete schedules for the flights are on the airline’s site.

Separately, he said MABkargo will transport more than 10 million pieces of masks and ventilators from Shanghai and Guangzhou in the next few days.

“This is made possible by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma), Ministry of Transport and Pharmaniaga Berhad,” he said.

Domestically, Izham said that the Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and MASwings will facilitate the movement of goods as well as medical staff across the peninsula as well as within Sabah and Sarawak.

He also said that the three units have aircraft standing by at Subang Airport, KLIA and KKIA to initiate rapid mobilisation of medical staff and professionals as well as other (non-Covid-19) patients to support MOH’s capacity and resource management efforts across Malaysia.

“Together with our sister airlines under the Malaysia Aviation Group, we support Malaysia’s Ministry of Health with dedicated belly space across our domestic and international network and on MABkargo’s global freighter network for the transport of medical devices and supplies.

“Most recently we transported two tonnes of face masks and personal protection equipment from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu as well as 300,000 pieces of disposable masks, 50,000 pieces of protection suit and 8,000 pieces of protection suit with eye mask courtesy of the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur,” added Izham.

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