Rumours claiming that Malaysia Airline will shut down its operations on May 28 has been squelched by the airline company.
MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said articles written based on quotes from unofficial sources were causing anxiety among its passengers. “In spite of that, we remain committed with greater marketing push,” he said, adding that the current Malaysia Airlines Travel Fair allowed travellers to purchase their tickets at half price until December. “Passengers need not worry.”
The airline has been ailing financially, due to the waves of bad publicity following the disappearance of Flight MH370. Yesterday, MAS’ share price slipped to an intra-day low of 17 sen, with 109.1 million shares traded.
For the first quarter ended March 31, the airline posted net loss of RM444mil, plunging 72% from the preceding quarter and 28% year-on-year.
Revenue came in at RM3.53bil, up 4.2% from RM3.39bil last year.
On another note, two major airlines in the country are on a price war with discounts of up to 60% being offered to selected international destinations.
Malaysia Airlines is offering discount airfares of up to 50% to popular destinations such as London, Sydney, Chennai, Osaka and Krabi. The deals through the Malaysia Airlines Travel Fair 2014 started on May 15 and ends tomorrow.
Travel period is until Dec 31 this year.
“We urge Malaysians to take advantage of this period to book their flights … it is a great opportunity to plan the year-end holiday,” said MAS regional senior vice-president Malaysia region Datuk Muzammil Mohamad in a statement.
He said popular destinations included London where ticket sales had been brisk.
Meanwhile, AirAsia X, with its Markdown Festival, is slashing its prices up to 60% for 18 destinations including Perth, Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Busan, Chengdu, Kathmandu and Colombo.
The offers from the low-cost carrier started on May 19 and will end on Sunday for travel period between May 26 and April 30 next year. AirAsia X’s commercial director Datuk Bernard Francis said the company was offering over 350,000 seats “with slash deals for this Markdown Festival”.
