Royal meal on selected MAS flights for Eid

In conjunction with the upcoming Hari Raya Aidilfitri (Eid al-Fitr), Malaysia Airlines will be serving a royal menu by the Raja Muda of Perlis, Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Tuanku Syed Faizuddin Putra Jamalullail and his consort, Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Raja Puan Muda Tuanku Hajah Lailatul Shahreen Akashah Khalil. 

The royal dishes will be served onboard selected flights from 15 to 17 June 2018.

The menu is part of the airline’s Best of Malaysia initiative, under which the airline introduces authentic and traditional Malaysian meals in-flight and on the ground.

The kurma daging Perlis will be served to passengers flying First and Business Class on MH2 and MH4 from Kuala Lumpur to London, UK, as well as Business Class on MH150 from Kuala Lumpur to Jeddah, KSA and MH112 and MH196 from Kuala Lumpur to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Business Class passengers flying from Kuala Lumpur to Sabah, Sarawak and ASEAN destinations will also get to enjoy the dish.

The recipe is a favourite at Istana Arau, the official residence of the Perlis royal family, and is being served onboard as part of an initiative to promote Perlis cuisine both locally and internationally. The initiative was personally spearheaded by the royal couple themselves.

Passengers flying Economy Class on the above routes can also savour the kurma ayam Perlis, which features the same recipe but with chicken instead of beef. Both dishes are available on the first three days of Aidilfitri.

Alongside this, and to coincide with the Aidilfitri holidays, Malaysia Airlines passengers will be able to receive the special kids activity pack or Pilot Parker baby bib when they book their child meal beforehand. The Pilot Parker activity pack includes an activity book, stickers, and stationery to keep children occupied on-board. These items will be available until 30 June 2018.

For Aidilfitri, Malaysia Airlines is also providing traditional Raya meals for lunch and dinner at the Golden Lounge. Guests can savour nasi tomato, lemang and rendang, and sayur lodeh, as well as tart nenas, kuih bahulu and dodol before their flights.
Ahead of the Hari Raya holidays, Malaysia Airlines would like to advise passengers to arrive early at KLIA. Those travelling this Hari Raya are encouraged to arrive 3 hours prior to their scheduled time of departure to avoid congestion. Passengers may also check in 48-hours prior to their flight via web check-in at www.malaysiaairlines.com or via MHmobile.

To ensure seamless travel, MAS highlights that:

- Check-in counters will close 60 minutes before flight departure.

- Immigration and security clearance is an estimated 45 minutes.

- Have the required travelling documents ready.

- The boarding gate will close 20 minutes prior to departure.

Details:

View pictures of the in-flight dishes

Hashtags: #MalaysiaAirlines, #MalaysianHospitality

Turkish Airlines adds more flights to Saudi Arabia

Turkish Airlines has launched new flights from the Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW), Ankara Esenboga and Trabzon airports to key Saudi Arabian cities including Riyadh, Jeddah and Medina.

All three routes - between Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW)-Jeddah (JED), between Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen (SAW)-Riyadh (RUH) and Ankara Esenboga (ESB)-Medina (MED) - will each operate on a schedule of seven flights weekly.

The SAW-MED route is now operated four times a week and the TZX-RUH route is thrice weekly.

Turkish Airlines flies to seven destinations in Saudi Arabia. From Istanbul Ataturk Airport (IST), Turkish Airlines currently operates 21 weekly frequencies to Jeddah, and 14-weekly frequencies to both Medina and Riyadh. There are also 10-weekly frequencies (14 as of June 2016) from IST and seven weekly frequencies from SAW to Dammam. The airline flies seven times weekly from IST to Yanbu, five times weekly from IST to Al Qassim and three times weekly frequencies from IST to Taif.

Interested?

Book tickets online, contact the call centre at +90 212 444 0849 or visit any Turkish Airlines sales office

Schedules:

SAW - MED - SAW 

Source: Turkish Airlines. LMT=local mean time

PIA lowers umrah fares

Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has reduced fares on domestic and major international flights, including umrah fares. Fares on the Karachi-Islamabad-Karachi and Karachi-Lahore-Karachi routes would now start from Rs7,500 while return tickets for umrah start from Rs54,500 for passengers from Lahore/Islamabad, and from Rs44,500 for passengers from Karachi, the airline said.

PIA had been dealing with what it said was an illegal strike, and praised the teamwork of PIA employees in managing passengers in the face of resulting flight reductions. On 7 February the airline sent two Boeing 777 planes in collaboration with Saudi Airlines to Jeddah to bring back around 800 "umra zaireen", umrah pilgrims. This followed flights on 5 February to ferry about 700 Umra zaireen from Jeddah to Karachi and Islamabad via two Saudi Airlines flights.

PIA also made arrangements with Air Blue on 4 February to accept PIA's confirmed ticket passengers for flights to Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Dubai, Muscat, Jeddah and Riyadh. Arrangements had also been made with Shaheen Air to accept PIA's confirmed ticket passengers for domestic flights.

On 12 February PIA reported that its flight schedule has fully returned to normal within two days of ending the strike, expressing gratitude to customers for their confidence in the national carrier. PIA has also pledged to give full refunds for any international and domestic tickets that were not utilised during strike days.

Interested?

According to a Suroor Asia blog post, PIA had announced fare discounts for umrah in January 2016 

Hajj pilgrims from the Maldives take chartered flights by MEGA Maldives Airlines to Saudi Arabia

Source: MEGA Maldives Airlines.

MEGA Maldives Airlines has begun its special charter flights for Maldivians making the pilgrimage to the Hajj this year. The first flight carrying 300 Maldivian passengers from the Maldives Hajj Corporation departed Ibrahim Nasir International Airport on 28 August and arrived at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The special charter flights are in operation to 1 September. MEGA Maldives Airlines carried 1,766 Maldivians on six flights, comprising 1,300 passengers from the Hajj Corporation, 235 from the Minah Hajj Group and 231 from the Zaeema Hajj Group. This is the second year in which MEGA Maldives Airlines has offered its services to carry Maldivians directly to Jeddah from Male, given the challenges faced by Maldivians flying to Saudi Arabia in previous years.

MEGA Maldives and Hajj Corporation signed a charter agreement in July 2015, formalising the arrangements which made MEGA Maldives Airlines the principal carrier for the Hajj. During the signing ceremony in July, the CEO of MEGA Maldives George Weinmann stated that it was an honour for the airline to be providing Hajj services, which it hopes to continue in the years ahead.

The return flights from Jeddah to Male will commence on 28 September and end on 1 October 2015.

Malaysia Airlines begins Hajj flights

Malaysia Airlines’ Haj and Charter services have begun with the first flight departing from KL International Airport (KLIA) for Madinah at 12.35pm.

Flight MH8000, carrying a total of 279 pilgrims, is scheduled to arrive Madinah at 4.20pm on the same day.

Malaysia Airlines' Head of Haj and Charter, Yazid Mohamed said, “We remain fully committed in our duty to serve all our Hajj pilgrims and provide superior ground and in-flight service throughout the Hajj season. We hope that the pilgrims will find our arrangements convenient and we would also like to take this opportunity to wish our pilgrims a blessed journey to the Holy Land.”

For the first time, Malaysia Airlines and Tabung Haji will be mounting six feeder flights from Kota Bharu to Kuala Lumpur on the B737-800. The first departure of the feeder flight from Kota Bharu will arrive Kuala Lumpur at 2pm and will depart KLIA as MH8002 at 4.30pm on 16 August and will arrive Madinah at 8.15pm the same day.

This Hajj season, Malaysia Airlines will be operating 39 flights to Jeddah and Madinah, departing from seven Malaysian points, namely Kuala Lumpur (13 flights), Penang (five flights), Johor Bharu with six flights, Kuching (three flights), Kota Kinabalu (two flights), Kuala Terengganu and Alor Setar with two flights.

Garuda, Turkish Airlines code-sharing till October 2015

Garuda Indonesia and Turkish Airlines are implementing a codeshare agreement from Jakarta to Istanbul and vice versa. This new agreement is in effect from until October 24 2015.

The updated codeshare flight schedule between Garuda Indonesia and Turkish Airlines is as follows:

Source: Garuda Indonesia. CGK is the airport code for Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Jakarta, Indonesia, while IST is the airport code for Atatürk International Airport in Istanbul, Turkey. STD refers to the time of departure, and STA to the time of arrival. +1 next to a number indicates that arrival is on the next day.

Enquiries on the codeshare agreement should be directed to +62 8041 807 807 or +6221 2351 9999.