At a time when there is limited good news in the aviation industry, Garuda Indonesia and Malaysia Airlines today announced an exciting expansion of their joint partnership, with `One Ticket to Europe`.

The national airline of Indonesia and the national airline of Malaysia today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish comprehensive commercial cooperation which will enhance the current arrangement to include a third country code share agreement with flights operating to Australia, Germany and UK, an expanded route network between the two countries and other support services.

Malaysia Airlines was represented by Dato` Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan, Senior General Manager of Sales, Distribution and Marketing, and Garuda Indonesia by Bachrul Hakim, Executive Vice President, Commercial. The signing ceremony was witnessed by Malaysia Airlines Managing Director, Dato` Md Nor Yusof, Dr Amin Khan, General Manager, Network Planning and Revenue Management, Malaysia Airlines and Mr Hasudungan Pandiangan, General Manager of Alliances and International Affairs, Garuda Indonesia.

The two airlines aim to provide customers with the highest standards of quality, service and value through code share cooperation on both passenger and cargo services, boosted tourism promotion, joint sales and marketing, network strategy and coordination, ground handling and engineering maintenance.

In line with network strategy of both airlines, Malaysia Airlines will commence operations to Balikpapan and Manado in July and August respectively, followed by Jogjakarta and Padang in October and increase operations to Surabaya to a double daily service. Garuda Indonesia will also commence services from Surabaya to Kuala Lumpur in July.

Within the next month, the third country code share agreement will be applied, in the first instance, to services -

* Kuala Lumpur to London (6 x weekly)
* Kuala Lumpur to Frankfurt (7 x weekly) and
* Denpasar to Darwin (2 x weekly).

Immediate benefits to passengers are the `One Ticket to Europe` from Jakarta and Denpasar, and for Malaysians, a renewed destination in Darwin. The management of both airlines are confident that the Jakarta / Kuala Lumpur sector will become a busy trunk route or jalur gemuk, in turn adding to the role of KLIA as a regional aviation hub, and increasing passenger traffic into ASEAN nations.

Dato` Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan said, “Garuda and MAS have shared a profitable relationship in the past in the true ASEAN spirit of this region, by exploring avenues of business and tourism development, optimising marketing opportunities and the pooling of advanced skills. This new step leads the way to a higher level of cooperation and collaboration in the corporate regional architecture, offering better service and choice to the customer.`

Bachrul Hakim said, “Where previously our partnership focused on the promotion of travel between our two countries, we have become more ambitious and set our sights on promoting travel and tourism beyond our shores to other parts of the world, increasing passenger numbers and the tourist dollar. This cooperation will see Garuda Indonesia increasing usage of KLIA as a gateway from this region. We are confident that Australia, Germany and the UK are the first important steps towards a wider network cooperation.”

Currently, Garuda Indonesia and Malaysia Airlines operate the following code share services:-

* Kuala Lumpur - Jakarta
* Kuala Lumpur - Surabaya
* Kuala Lumpur - Denpasar
* Kuala Lumpur/Penang - Medan

For enquiries on this release, media members may call: -
Shauqi Ahmad (AGM Corporate Communications, Malaysia Airlines) (03) 7840-2001 (019) 231-0046
Pujobroto (Vice President, Corporate Communications, Garuda Indonesia (62) 21 2312612 Ê

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