Turkish Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have signed a new codeshare agreement. What does the increased cooperation between the two carriers mean for travelers?
Turkish Airlines will place its flight number on all Malaysia Airlines domestic flights as well as Malaysia’s service to Australia and New Zealand:
- Adelaide (ADL)
- Auckland (AKL)
- Brisbane (BNE)
- Melbourne (MEL)
- Perth (PER)
- Sydney (SYD)
Malaysia Airlines will place its flight number on TK’s Kuala Lumpur to Istanbul flight as well as domestic services to:
- Ankara (ESB)
- Antalya (AYT)
- Izmir (ADB)
Izham Ismail, CEO of Malaysia Airlines, said:
“This codeshare will also allow for our passengers to travel to the major cities in Turkey, providing them with even more access for their travels.
This opens up the opportunity for more tourists to explore Malaysia, as one of the premier holiday destinations in the Asia Pacific region, and we look forward to extending our Malaysian hospitality further with all who travel with us.”
Ahmet Bolat, Turkish Airlines’ Chief Investment Officer, added:
“With this agreement we have signed today, we are also committed to providing our passengers with better connection options and taking the passenger experience to a much more comfortable dimension.”
I’ve long stopped pointing out the irregularity of a Star Alliance carrier linking up with a oneworld carrier. In a post-alliance world, these sorts of agreements are now commonplace. While alliances remain valuable brands that drive business to member carriers, airlines have shown a penchant to step outside the alliance loyalty sphere.
I do find it interesting, however, that Turkish and Malaysia are cozying up. Turkish already codeshares with Singapore Airlines and Thai Airways. These codeshare agreements include flights within Asia and Australia that Turkish does not serve. In that sense, the new codeshare agreement is rather duplicative but will funnel traffic on TK’s KUL route, offering more options to get to Australia that include Turkish Airlines.
CONCLUSION
With a codeshare relationship in place, look for greater commercial cooperation going forward. But with Malaysia Airlines facing serious financial trouble, a small codesharing relationship with Turkish Airlines will not do much to change the outlook.
image: Malaysia Airlines
Strange combo. If I had to connect from/to TK no doubt that would be Thai or SQ.
MH has become a not so preferable airline to fly over the last few years. In terms of delays and delay handling they are a worthy match for AA.
TK on the other hand is an absolute pleasure to fly.
Being in an alliance does not mean each member has to only do business with members in the same alliance. There are so many codeshare/partnerships between alliances. For examples, ANA with Vietnam Airlines, Lufthansa with Cathay Pacific, American with Korean.. just to name a fews. Singapore Airlines always codeshares with Alaska (non-Star Alliance) instead of United.
That is true now, but did not use to be the case. In fact, the alliance language specifically prohibited this and members were supposed to seek permission to deviate. That is no longer the case.