Malaysia Airlines baggage allowance restored to normal

Malaysia Airlines Tuesday Jan. 5, 2016 barred passengers from checking in baggage on flights to Paris and Amsterdam for two days due to “unseasonably strong headwinds” on a longer flight path it is taking.

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has restored the normal baggage allowance and the normal route for their flights to Europe.

The airline pointed out that it will not hesitate to adjust its flight path as safety is its utmost priority.

Travelers from Kuala Lumpur are learning a forced lesson in packing light as a shocking announcement has banned checked baggage on select Malaysia Airlines today and tomorrow.

MAB explained that the head winds in the last four days had reached 200 knots, which would make its Boeing B777-200 planes use up to 15 per cent more fuel.

Malaysia Airlines seems to be at least as successful in courting PR disasters as it has been unlucky in avoiding real ones. Routes were modified after the downing of one of its jets over a war-zone in Ukraine in 2014 killed all 298 people aboard.

“Based on its current risk assessment, done on a daily basis, the airline is now able to take a shorter route on European flights”, the carrier said in a separate e-mailed statement.

It said this, combined with “unseasonably strong headwinds”, was limiting its ability to carry luggage.

“By their reasoning all other carriers in Southeast Asia heading to Europe would not be able to check in luggage, too, if indeed what they claim is true”, Shukor Yusof, analyst with Malaysia-based Endau Analytics, told AFP.

Frequent fliers are used to occasionally finding one of their bags hasn’t arrived at their destination with them, whether due to a tight connection or airline error.

Malaysia Air’s no-baggage plan, not shared by any other Asian airline, comes even as global oil prices have declined to around their lowest in a decade. Passengers flying on Singapore Air’s suites and first class can check in 50 kilograms of bags, those in business class 40 kilograms and economy class 30 kilograms.

“Obviously that would also reduce the revenue an airline is making from that particular flight, but it’s not as if a headwind issue is a permanent situation”.

The carrier, which lost two Boeing 777 aircraft in separate incidents in 2014, has been flying a roundabout route to Europe over Egypt rather than Iran since October.

“Safety remains the centre of the airline’s operations”, Malaysian airline said.