NICHOLAS IONIDES / SINGAPORE
Under deal carriers will eventually share revenues and costs through joint ventures
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has put an end to longstanding questions about its future alliance plans by building on the established partnership with KLM, effectively pledging to work exclusively with the Dutch carrier and its allies.
KLM and MAS signed a wide-ranging Alliance Co-ordination Agreement in Kuala Lumpur on 16 June, promising initially to boost marketing, sales and distribution activities on existing codeshare flights, and later sharing revenues and costs through joint-ventures.
"The two carriers intend to work towards a joint venture on the Kuala Lumpur-Amsterdam route, sharing costs and revenues," say the airlines, adding it will be like that between close partners KLM and Northwest Airlines on transatlantic services, and will involve "partner airlines".
MAS, re-nationalised earlier this year, agreed to a partnership with Northwest some time ago. The two aim to start codesharing between Asia and the USA this year.
MAS says its expanded partnership with KLM is based on "exclusivity", which analysts say clearly signals that it will not join the Oneworld alliance as long speculated. MAS was until last year close to becoming a member of the so-called 'Wings' grouping with Alitalia, KLM and Northwest, but the breakdown of ties between KLM and Alitalia - and the opening of merger talks between British Airways and KLM, which ultimately failed - forced it to reconsider.
KLM and MAS will work towards a "phased expansion" of codeshare services; further align passenger products and schedules; boost sharing of cargo capacity; and co-operate with revenue management, sales and marketing, reservation and distribution systems, e-commerce and IT, ground handling, purchasing, catering, and maintenance and engineering.
As well as codesharing on passenger flights between Amsterdam and Kuala Lumpur, the carriers co-operate on flights beyond their key hubs to Scandinavia and Finland, and to Australia and New Zealand. They also share freighter capacity.
The deal comes as the Amsterdam Schiphol airport operator is buying a stake in Malaysian airports operator Malaysia Airports Holdings.
Source: Flight International
