KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines Bhd’s (MAB) pilgrimage airline, Amal is still assessing the impact of its operations following the temporary travel restriction for umrah pilgrimages imposed by the Saudi government on February 27.
The suspension had forced Amal to cancel a number of charter flights, prompting the airline to consolidate its commercial flights into Saudi Arabia.
“However, it is too early to tell how this (temporary suspension) will impact MAB’s turnaround plan given that there is no official indication from Saudi government on how long the ban will be.
“Overall, we see the impact from the Covid-19 is expected to affect airlines globally due to huge decrease in travel demand, MAB spokesperson told The New Straits Times today.
MAB said its priority now was to transport passengers who were already in the Kingdom back to Malaysia with the adjustment of its current double daily flights between Kuala Lumpur – Jeddah and Madinah.
“Our current priority is to transport 4,700 passengers back from Saudi Arabia to Kuala Lumpur over the next two weeks. We will be mounting 10 flights over this period to transport our passengers who are already in Saudi Arabia,” the spokesperson added.
However, some passengers may be required to depart from a different city and or may experience travel delays due to the flight adjustments.
“Affected passengers will be provided with hotel accommodation, meals and transportation arrangements between Jeddah and Medina or vice versa, if required,” he said, adding that Amal had planned to transport over 200,000 pilgrims for umrah and hajj this year.
It was reported that 15,000 umrah pilgrims – which were scheduled to leave this month - affected by the temporary suspension of umrah and tourists visas to Masjid Nabawi in Madinah.
The pilgrim-centric airline said it was exploring the utilisation of smaller aircraft such as the A330 in replacing the A380 for better efficiency.
“We have also added an option for pilgrims and agents to rebook their journey to a later date once the travel restriction is lifted,” he said.
Since it was launched in February last year, Amal has gained significant traction and had transported over 33,000 Malaysians during the hajj season last year.
“Amal had also contributed 7.0 per cent to Malaysia Airlines Group’s overall revenue in 2019 and managed to transport over 180,000 pilgrims.”
The New Straits Times previously reported Amal had secured a provisional Air Service Licence (ASL) and was applying for the air operators certificate (AOC).
Amal began its operations in October 2018, and was officially launched on February 12, 2019 with the unveiling of its official name and logo.
MAB aspired Amal to be the hajj and umrah carrier of choice connecting Muslims in Southeast Asia, primarily Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand to the Holy Land, reflecting true Islamic values and principles.