KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines said it would offer full refunds to customers who want to cancel their tickets in the wake of the MH17 disaster.
Passengers can change or cancel their tickets without financial penalty until Thursday for travel throughout the rest of the year, the struggling national airline said.
“In light of the MH17 incident, Malaysia Airlines will be waiving any change fees for passengers who wish to make changes to their itinerary to any MH destinations,” it said in a statement.
“Passengers who wish to postpone or cancel their travel plans can obtain a refund, including for non refundable tickets.”
Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur is believed to have been shot out of the sky by a surface-to-air missile, crashing in strife-torn eastern Ukraine on Thursday with 298 people from a dozen countries on board.
The disaster came four months after the disappearance of Flight MH370, which lost contact with air traffic controllers on March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.
Both planes were long-range, wide-body Boeing 777-200s.
Malaysia Airlines said in May that MH370’s disappearance had a “dramatic impact” on its first-quarter results, with cancelled bookings helping push the company to a loss of 443 million ringgit ($140m).
State fund Khazanah Nasional, which holds the airline’s purse strings, said in June that it would announce a plan to revive the carrier within six to 12 months.
Malaysia Airlines had already raked in losses amounting to $1.3bn over the previous three years.
AFP
