KUALA LUMPUR, July 4- Malaysia Airlines (MAS)is offering more seamless one-stop air connectivity between Kuala Lumpur and several major cities in the United States (US) through a codeshare arrangement with American Airlines (AA).
AA is one of the MAS’ partner airlines in the oneworld alliance. All codeshare services will be marketed as MAS flights, thus simplifying ticketing to one document, issued by the national carrier.
“This codeshare provides an opportunity to expand the US network without having to mount our own flights to the various cities there,” said MAS Group Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad Jauhari Yahya.
” It also gives the US customers more options to choose when travelling to Malaysia, Singapore and Bangkok. It is expected to greatly contribute towards increased tourist arrivals into Malaysia,” he added.
This codeshare cooperation is part of the strategy of the national carrier to develop cooperation with oneworld alliance members.
It is also an initiative towards enhancing air connectivity with key priority markets overseas for increased tourist arrivals into Malaysia as required by the government’s Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).
The codeshare was announced in March this year, and allows for 136 weekly options to and from five American cities through European stations, while other connections on the AA and MAS network will be enabled progressively in 2013/2014.
The second phase codeshare will enable customers in Malaysia and the US to book direct with MAS and take advantage of the connection options between Kuala Lumpur and the US cities of Atlanta, Boston, Washington, Houston, Minneapolis, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas and San Diego via the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Dallas and Miami gateways.
-BERNAMA
