Malaysia Airlines is the country’s national carrier and the country’s second-largest airline. They fly a huge number of contemporary Airbus and Boeing planes throughout Asia, as well as to Australia, New Zealand, and three European countries.
While the airline has had two high-profile disasters in recent years, it has a very good safety record and is consistently ranked among the top airlines in the world. MASwings and Firefly are Malaysia’s two domestic and regional carriers.
Malaysia Airlines Operates a Modern Fleet
If you’re flying Malaysia Airlines and you associate safety with aircraft age, there’s some good news for you: the airline’s fleet is rather recent, consisting of A330, A350, and 737 planes.
I don’t necessarily agree with that viewpoint since I believe that aircraft safety is more concerned with the airline’s aircraft maintenance regime, the airline’s safety policies and protocols, and the amount of safety regulation and oversight at the national level.
Older planes are extremely safe if they are properly and routinely maintained. They can safely run for 30 years or more if exposed to regular and professional maintenance examinations.
Anyway, it’s still interesting to look at Malaysia Airlines’ fleet and compare it to other national airlines. According to Airfleets.net, the Malaysia Airlines fleet has an average weighted age of 9.5 years.
Malaysia Airlines’ A330s are the company’s oldest aircraft, with an average age of 10.9 years. Malaysia Airlines’ oldest A330 was delivered in 2011, while their newest was delivered in 2018. Malaysia Airlines’ newest aircraft type is the A350, which was delivered at the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018.
Is Malaysia Airlines Good?
Yes, Malaysia Airlines has a good safety record, with the most recent Malaysia Airlines flight tragedy occurring in 1995. It is far safer than other carriers in Europe and the United States, which had big incidents last year. SkyTrax gives Malaysia Airlines a five-star rating.
Malaysia Airlines is IOSA-certified and a member of the OneWorld Alliance. AirlineRatings.com compares airlines around the world from a variety of angles. Malaysia Airlines receives 3 stars out of a possible 7 stars in its rating, which is based on the following criteria:
Malaysia Airlines has received IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) certification. This audit is optional, and it analyzes whether an airline has the essential systems and processes in place to operate safely every two years.
Malaysia Airlines is not on any blacklists in Europe or the United States. Malaysia does well in ICAO Country Audits, which evaluate a country’s attitude toward aviation safety supervision and regulation.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) oversees the safety of Malaysia’s civil aviation industry. CAAM’s IATA Safety Audit findings are good, with successful implementation in the range of 80–85% for seven of the eight areas inspected, matching or above the global averages for these areas but falling short in one.
The’missing’ four stars are due to the following:
Malaysia Airlines has had three fatal accidents in the last ten years (minus three stars). This concept is covered in greater depth later in this essay. com provides no comment on Malaysia Airlines’ COVID-19 mitigation strategy (negative one star).
Malaysia Airlines is also a part of the Oneworld Alliance, which is one of the world’s three major airline alliances. Membership in a major airline alliance is not a safety certification in and of itself, but it is an important stamp of approval for the airline’s attitude toward safety and operations.
American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, and Qantas are also Oneworld members.
Malaysia Airlines Incidents and Accidents
To begin, consider Malaysia Airlines’ tragic year of 2014, when it saw two big fatalities:
On March 8, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines 777 was flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it vanished from radar screens and disappeared, most likely over the Indian Ocean. This tragedy is still a mystery; conjecture about the cause is rampant, but no official findings have been produced. The 239 people on board are all presumed dead.
A Malaysia Airlines 777 was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur on July 17, 2014, when it was shot down over Ukraine. All 298 passengers and crew members on board died. Both of these instances were extremely unfortunate and harmed Malaysia Airlines’ reputation greatly.
The first cannot be explained, whereas the second appears to have been an act of international aggression, and thus Malaysia Airlines was not directly at fault, except to say that at the time of last contact, the aircraft was flying 1,000 feet above airspace that Ukrainian authorities had classified as restricted due to ongoing fighting in the area. Aside from these two events, one additional tragic accident involving a Malaysia Airlines aircraft has occurred.
In 1995, a Fokker 50 flying from Kota Kinabalu to Tawau touched down on the runway and bounced several times before landing 800 feet from the end of the runway. The plane flew over the runway and crashed into a shantytown about 1,600 feet beyond the runway’s end. Thirty-four of the fifty-three people on board died in the crash.
