On Tuesday evening a statement appeared on the airline’s website saying flights to London, Amsterdam and Paris would not be taking checked baggage because of “unseasonable strong headwinds” and longer flight paths.
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Any luggage that is checked in will “arrive later”, while customers connecting with Malaysian flights via other members of the Oneworld alliance may have their bags offloaded, the company said in an advisory bulletin on its website.
The airline had imposed a temporary limitation on check-in baggage yesterday, citing safety reasons for doing so due to unseasonably strong headwinds.
It said this, combined with “unseasonably strong headwinds”, was limiting its ability to carry luggage.
Malaysia Airlines in a statement today said this is due to its current risk assessment, which is done on a daily basis, that has enabled the airline to take shorter routes on European flights.
The carrier, which lost two Boeing 777 aircraft in separate incidents in 2014, has been flying a roundabout route to Europe over Egypt rather than Iran since October. With more than 900 airline deaths in the past two years, attacks have outweighed any other cause of plane accidents.
The move had left aviation analysts baffled, with Shukor Yusof, an analyst with Malaysia-based Endau Analytics telling news agency AFP that it was unheard of in his 20 years in the industry.
Malaysia Airlines seems to be at least as successful in courting PR disasters as it has been unlucky in avoiding real ones. “My main concerns are centered on the way airport and airline staff get airside”, he said, adding, “There are many airports that have weak systems to control who goes airside and with what”.
Malaysia Airlines, however, had lost MH17 in 2014 when it was shot down by a missile over eastern Ukraine believed to have been fired by Russian separatists.
It said on Facebook that economy-class passengers can only carry a cabin bag up to 7 kilograms (15.4 pounds) while those in business and first class are allowed two pieces totaling 14 kilograms (30.8 pounds).
Malaysia Airlines will end its flights to Paris and Amsterdam later this month, leaving London as its only European destination, as part of a restructure of its global operations.
Last year, the airline appointed its first foreign CEO, Christoph Mueller, the former head of Ireland’s Aer Lingus, to oversee a major restructuring.
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The ban beginning Tuesday will be in effect until further notice, the airline said.
