Malaysia Airlines Lifts Baggage Ban On Europe Flights; Resumes Normal Route

Due to a combination of strong headwinds and longer flight routes, Malaysia Airlines announced yesterday that the carrier will not allow check baggage on routes from Kuala Lumpur to European destinations Paris and Amsterdam.

No other airline asked passengers to leave their luggage because of the windy weather.

It cited strong headwinds and the longer flight path over Egypt as the reasons.

Public relations disasters at Malaysia Airlines come with a lot of baggage.

In response to queries from affected passengers about no other airline suffering from strong wind issues, MAB said on Twitter that "each airline conducts their own risk assessment and may not be flying similar routes".

Meanwhile another passenger, Steven Lee, seemed doubtful that the decision was taken due to the headwinds when he wrote: 'Is there are security threat to MH airlines flying to Europe that the public should know about?'

The move comes after one of its airliners was shot down over the Ukraine in 2014 which killed all 298 people on board.

"The headwinds over the last four days were in excess of 200 knots, which can add up to 15% fuel burn on a B777-200 aircraft", said the airline in a statement.

The airline is also still reeling from the loss of two planes in 2014, including Flight MH370 which disappeared in March that year after inexplicably deviating from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight path with 239 passengers and crew aboard.

In Dec., Malaysia Airlines made headlines when a flight taking off from Auckland, New Zealand to Kuala Lumpur flew in the wrong direction because air traffic control was given the wrong flight plan.

What makes the Malaysia Airlines situation unique is how the airline responded.

The Boeing 777-200ERs flown by Malaysia Airlines to Paris and Amsterdam have a maximum range of 6900 nautical miles, versus the 8500 nautical mile range of the A380 flown to London.

The move was blasted as "ludicrous" and "strange" by industry analysts. Some of them said the airline should have sold lesser tickets, limited the number of passengers and rejected freight instead.

Source: Malaysia Airlines Lifts Baggage Ban On Europe Flights; Resumes Normal Route