Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have signed a wide-ranging partnership agreement comprising revenue sharing on routes between both countries and code-share agreement on other routes.
The proposed partnership would include the airlines’ subsidiaries including SilkAir, Scoot and Firefly. Both the carriers told the media that the proposed agreement to share revenue on flights between Singapore and Malaysia and joint marketing activities was after receiving an approval from the competition authorities
The two airlines plan to establish a joint business agreement where they coordinate routes, offer joint fares, match corporate programmes, and explore opportunities between their frequent flyer programmes.
Currently, Malaysia Airlines operates 63 weekly flights to Singapore Changi and seven from Kuching. Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines and their subsidiaries have a combined market share of 53.6 percent by capacity.
Brendan Sobie, CAPA Centre for Aviation’s Singapore-based chief analyst, told the local media that, “It is not clear how deep these will go, [but] the new partnerships will generally enable MAS to compete more effectively in an extremely challenging environment—both in its home market and regionally within the Asia-Pacific.”
Singapore Airlines plans to have codeshare flights from four to 16 Malaysian destinations. That said, Malaysian Airlines will have code on Singapore flights to Europe, South Africa and other destinations.
Singapore Airlines is a Star Alliance member and Malaysian Airlines is in oneworld. The proposal is in line with Malaysia Airlines long-term vision to engage in deep partnerships to strengthen global presence. Both airlines and the countries are expected to mutually benefit from the partnership.