SEPANG: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has cleared a backlog of more than 3,200 stranded passengers with 12 additional flights.The last extra flight to London departed yesterday at 2.10pm.
MAS managing director and chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin said the extra flights were mounted from Kuala Lumpur to European countries to clear the passenger backlog caused by the Iceland volcanic ash clouds since reopening of the European airspace on Wednesday.
Todate, more than 3,200 passengers, who were stranded mostly in Kuala Lumpur, have been sent home or to their intended destinations using its jumbo jets, Boeing 747 and Boeing 777.
“From the 12 extra flights, four were mounted to London, four to Amsterdam, two to Paris, one to Frankfurt and one to Rome.
The last additional flight to London is scheduled to depart at 2.10pm today,” he told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) here yesterday.
Tengku Azmil said besides the extra flights, MAS has also resumed normal flights to European countries since reopening of the airspace, which totalled 31 flights todate.
He said most of the airlines’ stranded passengers have been cleared by the 43 flights but the situation would be reassessed to see if there was a need to mount any more extra flights.
Tengku Azmil said passenger travel was prioritised on a first-in-first-out basis and on special needs like medical, elderly, those with infants and young children and students with exams, a special team was set up to look into seat allocations.
He said the airline also provided accommodation to passengers while meals, beverages, blankets, pillows and toiletries were made available at the airport and ticket offices.
During the closure of the European airspace from April 15 to 20, MAS had cancelled 24 flights out of Kuala Lumpur, affecting some 7,000 passengers.
In total, 48 MAS flights were cancelled affecting 14,000 passengers flying to Europe and other destinations worldwide.
Tengku Azmil said eventhough 68 pilots and 264 cabin crew were redeployed for the extra flights, with most of the flights returning empty, the extra flights were flown so that the passengers could fly to their intended destinations as soon as possible.
Total loss suffered by MAS has yet to be ascertained, he added. —Bernama