05-04-2007: MAS, Alitalia seal codeshare agreement
Malaysian Airline System Bhd (MAS) and Alitalia have sealed a code-share agreement that will allow the two airlines to gain access to each other’s networks between Malaysia and Australia and the southern part of Europe.
Starting June 1, 2007, Alitalia will have access to MAS’s seat inventory for flights between Kuala Lumpur and Rome as well as between Kuala Lumpur and Penang and market them under its designator code “AZ”.
In addition, Alitalia’s customers will also be able to travel from Malaysia to MAS’s three Australian gateways of Melbourne, Sydney and Perth.
MAS’s customers have the option of services to Italian destinations served by Alitalia from Rome and Milan as well as five destinations in southern Europe – Barcelona, Athens, Geneva, Frankfurt and Madrid.
The two airlines sealed the agreement at a ceremony in Petaling Jaya on April 5.
In a joint statement, the two airlines said they were also looking at enhancing the agreement to enable their frequent flyer members to earn and redeem miles while traveling on each other’s flights.
They said moving forward, they were planning to expand their network reach that would enable both to gain more access to destinations in Malaysia and Italy.
MAS’s commercial director Datuk Rashid Khan: “This agreement is timely to our key business activities this year as we have launched 125 initiatives under our customer value proposition that provide more quality choices for our customers as well as flexible and convenient flight scheduling.”
“This strategic partnership accelerates our focus to heighten our market presence in the European key regions, through a hub-and-spoke network model. This agreement is also an extension of our government’s vision and goal to promote Malaysia in other parts of the world with the hope of bringing more tourists into Malaysia.”
Alitalia director of network agreement, Aureliano Cicala, said: “The agreement will integrate the collective networks in order to improve the offer to customers and bring more traffic to Malaysia, a country that is meeting more and more the favour of Italians.”