MAS cuts KK to Perth, Osaka services

MALAYSIA Airlines has begun implementing route cuts as part of a far-reaching overhaul of its operations.

First to go this week was the twice-weekly service between Kota Kinabalu and Osaka.

On January 31, the airline's three-times--weekly Kota Kinabalu-Perth services will be cut, followed by the ending of four-weekly services between Kota Kinabalu and Tokyo (Haneda) and Seoul from February 1 and February 21, respectively.

MAS group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said, 'This is part of our regional network consolidation involving single-aisle aircraft operations. We will be reviewing this situation in about three months time.'

Besides maintaining daily B737-800 flights linking Kota Kinabalu to Hong Kong and Taipei, Malaysia Airlines will be code-sharing on Korean Air's flights from Seoul to Kota Kinabalu.

The latest cuts are part of broader efforts by MAS to slash loss-making routes, which include flights from Kuala Lumpur to Cape Town, Johannesburg, Rome, Karachi, Dubai, Damman, Surabaya and Buenos Aires.