MALAYSIA Airlines Bhd (MAB) is continuing its rescue and repatriation missions, transporting stranded citizens back to their respective home countries amid the recovery movement control order (RMCO) as well as conditional MCO.
The situation allowed the national carrier to fly to new cities outside its usual network throughout its 218 rescue and repatriation flights so far.
MAB group chief operations officer Ahmad Luqman Mohd Azmi explained that out of those 218 flight, a majority (168) of them were charter services through strategic collaboration with government ministries and individual organisations.
“It has been a challenging yet exciting experience for us to operate in these new markets under the current circumstances. However, active engagements with the respective embassies, ministries, government agencies, organisations and regulatory bodies have made it possible,” he said in a statement today.
Over the same period, the airlines’ sister company, MAB Kargo Sdn Bhd has worked closely with governments and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to transport over 2,000 tonnes of medical equipment and disaster-relief provisions to impacted regions around the globe.
The encouraging trend has eventually increased the numbers whereby the export throughput figures in August 2020 have now matched pre-COVID-19 level, contributed by the reopening of more economic sectors and the usage of passenger-to-cargo flights to compensate the loss of belly capacity.
Ahmad Luqman said the demand for medical equipment worldwide has kept its aircraft flying and the cargo terminals busy.
“Our freighter schedules are adjusted to meet customers’ requirements. Despite lesser flights in the network, we continue to support the value-chain of day-to-day business and ensure minimal disruptions,” he said. – Oct 22, 2020
