Malaysia Airlines lifts bag ban on Europe flights after backlash on social media

KUALA LUMPUR // Malaysia Airlines on Wednesday lifted a much-criticised ban on checking in baggage on flights to Paris and Amsterdam, just one day after limiting bags to lighten the plane and save fuel.

The airline had banned check-in baggage for Tuesday and Wednesday flights to the two European cities due to “unseasonably strong headwinds” on a longer flight path it was taking.

Passengers took to social media to criticise the airline and suggested it could have reduced the number of passengers or refused to carry freight instead.

The airline said that it “uniquely has been using a routing [to Europe] via Egypt, which has been up to two hours longer than other carriers” for safety reasons.

Headwinds over the past four days exceeded 200 knots, which can burn up to 15 per cent more fuel on its Boeing 777-200 aircraft, it said.

It lifted the ban less than 24 hours after imposing it after concluding it could take a shorter route.

The airline said it does a daily risk assessment to determine the most optimum route for flights and that currently, it is taking “a more northerly route”. It did not elaborate.

A Malaysia Airlines jet flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by a missile in eastern Ukraine in 2014, killing all 298 people on board. Earlier that year, a Malaysia Airlines flight heading to Beijing disappeared and is believed to have crashed in the Indian Ocean.

* Associated Press