Introduction
Malaysia Airlines, the country’s national carrier, was first incorporated as Malayan Airways Limited (MAL) on 12 October 1937. It was a joint initiative of the Ocean Steamship Company of Liverpool, the Straits Steamship of Singapore and Imperial Airways which led to a proposal to the Colonial Straits Settlement government to run an air service between Penang and Singapore. On 2 April 1947, MAL took to the skies with its first commercial flight as the national airline. Fuelled by a young and dynamic team of visionaries, the domestic carrier turned into an international airline in less than a decade.
With the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the airline changed its name to Malaysian Airlines Limited.
In 1965, with the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, MAL became a bi-national airline and was renamed Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA).
However, in 1973, the partners went separate ways. Malaysia introduced Malaysian Airline Limited, which was subsequently renamed Malaysian Airline System or in short, Malaysia Airlines.
Today, Malaysia Airlines flies an average of 43,000 passengers daily to some 100 destinations worldwide and holds a lengthy record of service and best practices excellence. It was the recipient of the inaugural "World's Best Cabin Staff" award by Skytrax,UK in 2001 and continued to retain this title for 2002-2004, 2007 and 2009 - the most for any airline. In 2010, Malaysia Airlines was recognised as the ‘World's Leading Airline to Asia’, ‘Asia's Leading Airline’ and ‘Asia's Leading Business Class Airline’ by World Travel Awards (WTA). This year, WTA honoured Malaysia Airlines as ‘Asia's Leading Airline’ and ‘Asia's Leading Airline Lounge’. The national carrier's engineering subsidiary, Malaysian Aerospace Engineering (MAE), has also been acknowledged as the top airline affiliated Maintenance and Repair Organisation (MRO) in the world by Aviation Week's Overhaul & Maintenance magazine.
Its current fleet includes