Malaysia Airlines offers free Los Angeles, New York flight changes

Malaysia Airlines has announced that passengers who have booked to travel to Los Angeles or New York in the United States are free to make changes to their flights, free of charge, till the end of May 2009. The airline said in a statement that the offer comes in the wake of reported cases of swine flu in many parts of the United States, including California, New York and Texas, as well as in Mexico and Canada.

Datuk Tajuden Abu Bakar, Malaysia Airlines’ director of operations, said in the statement that the carrier would help the Ministry of Health in speeding up the
screening process of its passengers arriving from the United States, especially for those with connecting flights.

The screening, Tajuden said, was being carried out by the Ministry of Health as a precaution against the outbreak of the swine flu and that “passengers with obvious
symptoms will be quarantined.”

He explained in the statement, “We will do our best to minimise the screening process though the exercise is expected to slow down the incoming flow of traffic before the immigration lane. ”

Tajuden said that as of now Malaysia Airlines has not issued any travel restrictions, and has not seen a drop in demand for travel either.

Malaysia Airlines said it was keeping close and constant touch with officials of Malaysia Airports Bhd, other airport operators, and the Ministry of Health regarding managing the situation.

The website www.nst.com quoted Captain Dr Ooi Teong Siew, general manager for corporate safety of Malaysia’s Safety, Security, Health and Environment, on the precautionary measures taken against swine flu.

He said the measures included close monitoring of passengers for any signs of illness, provision of sufficient inventory of health safety equipment onboard and thorough cleaning and disinfection of the aircraft upon disembarkation of passengers.

This process, Dr Ooi added, was similar to that implemented during the outbreak of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2005.

Employees of Malaysia Airlines had also been provided with information on swine flu in order to minimise the risk of infection, he said.