Malaysia Airlines is about to join the Oneworld Alliance
 

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

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.

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 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif). MH is also the airline for divers, they fly to divers' paradises like the Maldives, Mauritius and of course around the Malay and Borneo.

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

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

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.

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).]

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!

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.

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

---


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

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).]

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.)

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... ]

Malaysian airline to join international alliance

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

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.

A little bit of back patting: I feel "insightful" already about expecting CX to be the main resistor to MH joining OW.

According to a yahoo story:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/010613/klr17192.html

(link posted by doc to the wings forum as
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum...ML/000027.html
)

Aviation analysts said they would prefer MAS to join the more established Oneworld alliance, led by British Airways.

But industry executives said Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific was not keen to have another Asian carrier in the union.

Wow... about time MH! Just flew my first MH flight in a couple of years even though I'm based in Malaysia. Might be looking to shift some flights over to MH if they join oneworld

Heard it on Bloomberg - the announcement was just made at the IATA conference in Singapore:

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles...rld-today.html

Wow! Unfortunately for me and MH didn't go for Skyteam Alliance. How thoughtful for MH will eventually to joins Oneworld Alliance. I am very disappointed the news for Skyteam and MH was more favorable to joins the Skyteam Alliance.

http://www.ausbt.com.au/malaysia-air...n=home-flipper.

Here the official news releases from MH will expect to joins the Oneworld.

(deleted)

I was wondering why a 10 year old thread got bumped...

anyway, I'd like this confirmed by oneworld and MH before I believe it.

There are news stories posted within the last hour by Australian Business Traveller, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation and Flightglobal.
http://news.google.com/news/story?pz...uMrX-k7BGsU7NM

Great news. MH does seem to fit oneworld's aim to focus on quality, and they're located in Southeast Asia - meaning that alliance members in the region are relatively more spaced out (JL, CX, MH), effectively reducing intra-alliance competition.

..but it's a bit awkward to bump a 10-year old thread. I thought the FlyerTalk server dates were out of sync for a minute there.

I have to admit that I didn't see this one coming. It looks as though in the last couple of years OW have finally started to take Asia seriously and accepted that you cannot provide adequate coverage of the worlds largest and most populous continent using only two hubs ( HKG and NRT ) .

An excellent win for OW in my experiences with them MH are an excellent carrier. I wonder if the XONEX rules will be modified to permit a 3 continent Southern Hemisphere RTW eg SYD QF EZE MH CPT BA JNB QF SYD.

It will also be interesting to see what happens to MH's plans to utilise the A380 on KUL-AMS, it would be hard to see their current deep relationship with KL remaining and without that I am sure that the A380 would be too much capacity for the route.

There is currently a link titled "Malaysia Airlines to join oneworld alliance" in the 'Highlights' section of the MH homepage, but it links to a missing page.

Thanks. I saw these after my first post and hence it was duely deleted! But, I wonder if this relationship developed steadily over the last 10 yrs or if it is only with the help of Mr Joyce at the helm?

Link on MH website now working.
http://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/e...-alliance.html

And on oneworld website:

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news/details?objectID=25793

Full integration by late next year (ie late 2012)
Wonder if they will beat Kingfisher (still has no scheduled date)

And on the Oneworld website:

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news/details?objectID=25793

And forgot to say thanks to doc the OP in this thread. No wonder you are labeled a Flyertalk posting legend when you can predict these things 11 years in advance :eek:
What are your predictions for 2022???

It will be interesting to see whether this means a Southern Hemisphere XONE3 will be possible using MH's CPT-EZE flight.

I am buzzing with excitement, even though i ve not flown them long haul in years! Guess its the hint of patriotism in me lol
Long overdue, hopefully they alliance can teach MAS a few tricks and steer back into the black!
Defo consider swapping to oneworld, as soon as i burn up all the BD miles lol
BA credit card here i come!

Indeed! I'm also interested to know if they will retain the single flight number for KUL-EZE (via CPT - Flights 201/202). Could be a nice earner or enabler if OneWorld allow the flight to count as one segment (per QF flights from Australia to LHR via SIN), and as you have suggested if they allow an XONE3 with transit via African continent not counted.

Interesting times...

I don't think they would allow you to ignore the African continent if booking the KUL-EZE through flight number (for precedent if you look at QF/BA flights LHR-SYD/MEL you are not allowed to pretend that the aircraft does not touch down in Asia, you must count Asia even if it does not show on your ticket. )

I do see a OW 3 continent being permitted for SWP AFR South America SWP without going through Asia if MH is used just for the CPT-EZE sector ( or vv) and I suspect that is what Supersonic Swinger meant , eg something such as SYD QF EZE MH CPT BA JNB QF SYD where the itinerary would never touch Asia.

It's official releases from Oneworld & Malaysia Airlines!!

http://www.oneworld.com/ow/news/details?objectID=25793

MH will expect to joining Oneworld in late 2012. Unreal! I cannot not believe it. I wasn't aware of MH.

Drag! You beat me again! :D I didn't see it the official PR from Oneworld.

So anyway, congratulations to MH & Oneworld Alliance. You will be very successful.

Took only 12 years! LOL!

Thought that they were always closer to SkyTrash than OW. One carrier less where one can redeem SkyPesos.

Good to hear. Anyone has an overview of MH's F destinations?

This would be a nice little Southern Hemipshere Circle for people like us down here. Number_6 was contemplating about this, too.

And boy, by making this announcement at the IATA conference in Singapore or all places. Must have caught all the regional airlines by a big big surprise. With SQ, TG in Oneworld, and GA, VN in SkyTeam, Oneworld is the weakest link of the 3 with no presence in South East Asia unless you count CX's daily BKK-SIN-BKK link!

MH obviously does not want to play second fiddle to GA/VN after they stole its limelight in joining Skyteam. So Oneworld must have been persuing them intently. I wonder if we can see QF or Jetstar making a comeback to KUL?