doc

Qantas is discussing buying a stake in Malaysia Airlines, which is about to join the Oneworld Alliance, led by British Airways, American Airlines and the Australian airline. A Qantas spokesperson would neither confirm or deny the reports, saying the airline talks with different organizations about “a whole range of topics” all the time.

Malaysia Airlines’ largest shareholder, Naluri Bhds, holds 29.09% of the airline but is keen to reduce that stake to clear debts. At the same time, Qantas has made a strong pitch to get Malaysia Airlines into the Oneworld alliance, with the intention of making Kuala Lumpur a hub to link in with Malaysia Airlines services to Europe.
http://www.aviationnow.com/TwoShare/...20448345335832

Guy Betsy

It's about time too ! I haven't flown MH for some time because they are not in any part of any major alliance. They have excellent service, a good fleet, and excellent fares. Plus their Business and First Class products are really quite underrated when compared to their southern neighbour.

silver

doc,

Thanx for the great news!

Guy Betsy,

I agree with you that MH is an excellent airline with excellent fares. I personally feel MH is like SQ with a more friendly and cozy atmosphere (okay okay SQ lovers, yes SQ is a class of it's own, but I just wanted to say MH is nice too ). MH is also the airline for divers, they fly to divers' paradises like the Maldives, Mauritius and of course around the Malay and Borneo.

mike turnbull

Hopefully, I'll still get points credited to my KLM account ?

Gemini

you guys say that MH has excellent service and fleet. What about safety? Does anyone know about MH official safety rating by any chance?

fokker50

4 December 1977; Malaysian Airline System 737-200; near Johore Strait, Malaysia: The aircraft was hijacked and subsequently destroyed by an in flight explosion. All seven crew members and 93 passengers were killed.


15 September 1995; Malaysia Airlines F50; Tawau, Malaysia: The aircraft touched down at about the 3900 foot (1200 meter) point of a 5600 foot (1700 meter) runway. The crew attempted a go around, but the aircraft settled back down past the perimeter fence where it then crashed into a number of nearby houses. Two of the four crew members and 32 of the 49 passengers were killed.

lonman

thanks for the info, but should such info really be your 1st post, fokker50??

[This message has been edited by lonman (edited 07-19-2000).]

Guy Betsy

Yeah - if comparing to other supposedly safe oneworld partners...like American Airlines??
I don't want to mention names or dates... but each airline have their own share of mishaps and misfortunes.

Personally I'd feel a lot safer on any Malaysia Airlines aircraft than on any american carrier mainly because the former have newer planes!

transborder

It seems rather strange that Qantas would not be against Malaysia Airlines joining oneworld. Qantas has what I assume is considered a "regional" hub in SIN and appears to compete directly w/SQ on many of the Pacific routes. I wonder if that would mean the QF would migrate this "hub" to KUL to overlap with Malaysia Airlines.

doc

There has been much renewed speculation that indeed MH will be the newest OW partner!

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MAS, which was bought back by the government at the start of the year, is also working towards becoming a member of a global alliance.

An announcement on the alliance will be made soon, managing director Mohamad Nor Yusof told Mingguan Malaysia weekly in an interview. (Reuters News)

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content...cat=7&id=33995

pegasus8228

it is often more to gain than to lose to have someone sharing part of your network.
QF will also benefit from all the connections drawn from KUL, e.g. the famous maldives, and all those SE Asia points that QF does not fly into or has less frequency.

this logic is as valid as why BA is seeking alliance with KLM and AA



[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 06-11-2001).]

clouds2cloud

If anyone has reservations, I would suspect that CX is the one concerned. Their dominant presence as the Asian network will be impacted by MH joining OW. On the other hand, MH brings a whole lot of new routes and networks and complements all the OW partners. My guess is that this makes strategic sense for the dominant OW players (AA, BA, QF) but there are a host of business issues including local politics. I doubt if AA or others would care for the involvement of the Malaysian govt (look at the experiences and squablling in Thailand over Thai being part of Star and allowing SQ to join, etc.)

2 Many Miles

This would be an interesting move for MAS.

Right now, they share FF programs with DL. I'd welcome another OW carrier on SE Asia. CX is great, but their route network isn't perfect. Service wise, CX is far superior to MAS, so I don't think CX would be sweating much.

The reason TG was so upset about SQ joining is that SQ is vastly superior to TG, so TG knew that the premium revenue pax would flock to SQ instead of buying the seats on TG. Because CX is the superior carrier, and already in the alliance, I don't see this as the same situation. Instead, CX will get more of the premium traffic and MAS will pick up more of the budget conscious folks.

Most importantly, it'll mean more award seat availability. And, maybe they'll offer upgrade awards with AA for discounted Y tix. [ Yes, I know it isn't likely, but a boy can dream... ]

doc

Malaysian airline to join international alliance

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/tools/quo...31B0D03090E%7D

2 Many Miles

Fascinating that the article says that the Wings alliance is made up of Northwest, KLM, and Alitalia. Shows how much research goes into these articles.