Malaysia Airlines has offered agents a preview of new onboard safety protocols to help reassure customers about flying long-haul, as it revealed plans to increase capacity over the Christmas period.
Travel Weekly joined the airline at its new base of Heathrow Terminal 2 to see new hygiene measures in practice, which include changes to its meal service in first and business class, a ‘hygiene kit’ containing masks and wipes for passengers, and a requirement for cabin crew to wear gloves, masks and protective clothing while serving passengers.
Speaking as part of a sponsored Travel Weekly Roadmap to Recovery Webinar, Daniel Bainbridge, regional manager UK & Europe for Malaysia Airlines, said: “During these challenging times, it’s important that customers feel confident that they can get onboard aircraft and feel reassured in the steps the airline is taking to keep our customers and our staff safe.
“We’ve introduced the Fly Confidently campaign, which includes a very thorough cleansing of the aircraft, the bathrooms, the work surfaces and all of our staff onboard wear PPE to ensure they and our customers are kept safe.”
Malaysia Airlines is currently operating one weekly flight to Kuala Lumpur each Sunday, but will increase the frequency to three services a week in December. While Malaysia’s borders remain closed to British travellers, Bainbridge emphasised the key role of the airline in helping Malaysian nationals and students return to the country over the festive period.
He added: “The trade is a very key part of our distribution and will continue to be in 2021, so we’re looking at the activities we can do in terms of increased training, opportunities for fam trips to get people on board, see our product and really plan for the future.
“I think we all need to be positive. People do want to travel – we know at the moment people can’t and it’s difficult but at some point those borders will open, people will be able to travel and there will be strong demand to get to the destinations we fly to in the future.”
Find out more about Malaysia Airlines’ Fly Confidently campaign here.