A study on airline service quality, pricing and passenger loyalty for Malaysia Airline at Kuching and Miri, Sarawak / Nur Wahidah Abdullah @ Wendy Dunstan

Malaysia Airlines had its humble beginning in the golden age of travel. A joint initiative of the Ocean Steamship Company of Liverpool, the Straits Steamship of Singapore and Imperial Airways led to a proposal to the government of the Colonial Straits Settlement to run an air service between Penang and Singapore. The result was the incorporation of Malayan Airways Limited (MAL) on 12 October 1937. On 2 April 1947, MAL took to the skies with its first commercial flight as the national airline. Fuelled by a young and dynamic team of visionaries, the domestic carrier turned into an international airline in less than a decade. With the formation of Malaysia in 1963, the airline changed its name to Malaysian Airlines Limited and soon after, Borneo Airways was incorporated into MAL. Within 20 years, MAL grew from a single aircraft operator into a company with 2,400 employees and a fleet operator using the then latest Comet IV jet aircraft, 6 F27s, 8 DCs and 2 Pioneers. In 1965, with the separation of Singapore from Malaysia, MAL became a bi-national airline and was renamed Malaysia-Singapore Airlines (MSA). A new logo was introduced and the airline grew exponentially with new services to Perth, Taipei, Rome and London. However, in 1973, the partners went separate ways; Malaysia introduced Malaysian Airline Limited, which was subsequently renamed Malaysian Airline System, or simply known as Malaysia Airlines. Today, Malaysia Airlines flies nearly 50,000 passengers daily to some 100 destinations worldwide. The airline holds a lengthy record of service and best practices excellence, having received more than 100 awards in the last 10 years. The most notable ones include being the first airline with the "World's Best Cabin Crew" by Skytrax UK consecutively from 2001 until 2004, "5-star Airline" in 2005 and 2006, as well as No.l for "Economy Class Onboard Excellence 2006" - also by Skytrax UK. On 30 January 2008, Dato' Sri Idris Jala and the management team announced the Business Transformation Plan (BTP 2), a continuation of the BTP 1 (Business Turnaround Plan).