KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines Bhd is expanding its international network with a new direct flight to its long-awaited destination, Doha.
Doha will be the third destination the airline flies to in the Middle East, effective May 25, 2022, after Jeddah and Madinah.
The new service will provide passengers connectivity via Hamad International Airport, enabling optimal connections to the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, through the codeshare partnership with Qatar Airways.
Group chief executive officer Izham Ismail said Malaysia Airlines' new route to Doha is an excellent opportunity to expand its network and offerings while significantly connecting the ASEAN markets with the Middle East region and beyond.
Izham said that as the airlines strive to become Asia's leading travel and aviation services group, this new service marks another milestone in the airline network's expansion plan.
"The service will further boost the growth of traffic flow via KLIA, opening up Malaysia more broadly to travellers from other international destinations.
"As a leisure and tourism player, we aim to play a significant role in bringing in international travellers to continue driving Malaysia's tourism recovery via this new route," he said.
The national airline will operate a direct daily flight between Kuala Lumpur (KUL) International Airport and Hamad International Airport, Doha (DOH) via MH160 departing KUL-DOH at 9.20pm and MH161 departing DOH-KUL at 01.30am.
Malaysia Airlines will operate the daily service with A330-300 aircraft, equipped with 290 seats, comprising 27 seats in business class, 16 economy with extra legroom and 247 seats in economy class.