SIA and Malaysia Airlines to execute joint marketing activities in new agreement

Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Malaysia Airlines (MAB) have inked a wide-ranging commercial agreement covering joint marketing activities to develop tourism, the sharing of revenue on flights between Singapore and Malaysia, and expanding codeshare routes. The new agreement also include MAB's sister airline Firefly and SIA's subsidiaries SilkAir and Scoot.

Besides joint marketing activities, both airlines will also explore the potential development of airpasses. The airpasses will enable customers travelling to Malaysia through the Kuala Lumpur and Singapore hubs more choices to visit other parts of the country such as Kuantan, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu on a single ticket.?Travellers can expect a seamless experience of convenience and flexibility while enjoying multistop itineraries.

Also, as part of the agreement, flights between Singapore and Malaysia will operate under a joint business arrangement. SIA and MAB intend to offer joint fare products, align corporate programmes to enhance the value proposition to customers, and explore tie-ups between their frequent-flyer programmes. Both airlines also aim to coordinate?flight schedules to provide customers with more flight choices and frequencies for passenger convenience.

The two airline groups will also expand their codeshare arrangements to include more destinations on each other?s networks. Today, the airlines codeshare on flights between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching and Penang. With the expansion, SIA and SilkAir plan to codeshare on MAB?s domestic flights and as such serve a total of 16 destinations in Malaysia.

In turn, MAB will progressively codeshare on flights between Singapore and Malaysia, Europe, South Africa and other destinations once necessary approvals are granted. This will be implemented in phases. It represents a significant expansion of the existing codeshare agreement and will provide MAB with more opportunities to expand connectivity to and from Malaysia. The recent agreement follows?the signing of a?memorandum of understanding (MoU) in June 2019, which aimed to offer new customer?benefits as well as new business opportunities.

(Read also: SIA-MAB codesharing furore: Dealing with customers feeling ?short-changed?)

MAB's CEO Izham Ismail said the agreement is in line with the airline's long term business plan goal of engaging in deep partnerships to extend its reach and presence globally.

"This partnership?is more than a conventional partnership and we believe in the mutual benefits for both airline groups and countries," he added.

Meanwhile, SIA's CEO Goh Choon Phong said it is very pleased to take the partnership with Malaysia Airlines to a new level.

"This will be a win-win for both our airline groups, and provide new benefits for our customers. In particular, the expanded scope of our partnership has the potential to provide a significant boost to the tourism industries in both Malaysia and Singapore, as well as the wider Southeast Asia region,? he added.