Malaysian Airlines Retention Strategy - Essay Example

Malaysian Airlines Customer Retention Strategy: Malaysian Airlines came into being on October 12 1937 after the joint proposal of the Ocean Steamship Company of Liverpool, the Straits Steamship Company of Singapore and Imperial Airways was accepted by the Government which put forward the request of flying planes between Penang and Singapore. Within a short period of ten years, Malaysian Airlines was expanding its services to the ever-growing demand of the nation and flying off to Jakarta, Medan, Saigon and Pelembang. As the demand and passengers grew, so did the demand of better services in terms of better fleet with improved passenger comfort rose. 21-seater DC3 was introduced into Airspeed Consul, which also offered in-flight services. In 1957, it acquired five more Beaver aircraft and Douglas DC4 Sky Master and took the first flight outside South East Asia to Hong Kong. During the next decade, it acquired many more planes. It was in 1960s, that Malaysian Airlines took the initiative to start domestic flights. Within the same time period, Malaysian Airlines expanded not only its fleet but also its destinations. It now had Comet IV Jet aircraft, F27s, DCs and Twin Pioneers and was flying off to far away destinations such as Bali, Madras, Colombo Sydney, Taipei, Perth- to name a few By 1973, it was carrying it one-millionth passenger and by the end of same year, it was carrying two-millionth passenger. In 1975, it introduced its in-flight magazine impressively named as “Wings of Gold”. In mid 1970s Malaysian Airlines improved its services and offered its customers destinations such as Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris. In 1980s, Malaysian Airline System was privatized and its revenues soar to RM 227 million. However, the change in nature of the company did not change its commitment to and importance given to customer services. It introduced hangar facility as new maintenance services and offered catering facilities in Subang. (“Past, Present and Moving Forward”)(“Malaysian Airlines”) In 1986, Malaysian Airlines took its first flight to the United States of America, flying twice a week to Los Angeles. It also bought Boeing 747-300 Combi Aircrafts. Now, it was offering its customers far more destinations than ever before, with 34 domestic ones and 27international ones. In 1987, Malaysian Airlines System introduced “Esteemed Traveler” loyalty program emphasizing on its commitment to customer services. After few years Malaysian Airlines along with Thai Airways International, Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines introduced “Passages”, offering lower prices and other rewards to frequent flyers. However, Passages came into end in 1999 and its place “Enrich” was introduced by Malaysian Airlines which was traveler reward program for frequent flyers which included concessions and other facilities while traveling with number of other airlines, while using certain credit cards, while staying at variety of hotels and while shopping at retailers around the world. Malaysian Airlines offers holiday packages such as Golden Holiday, hotels such as Hilton Group of Hotels, Amari Hotels and Resorts, Intercontinental Hotels, Marriott etc, credit card services such as American Express, Citibank, HSBC bank etc, car rentals such as Avis and Hertz are among some of facilities offered to its Enrich members On July 12, 2006, it introduced enhanced Enrich, now known as Enrich by Malaysian Airlines, which was designed on the same pattern as of Grads, the highly successful student traveling program of MAL. There are variety of Enrich Membership cards—Enrich Silver, Enrich Blue, Enrich Gold and Enrich Platinum. Some of privileges and rewards of these cards are as follows: Enrich Blue offers upgrading from Economy Class to Golden Club class and from there to First class, with free tickets for you travel companion if the tickets of latter two are bought, concessions on golden packages, increasing miles through Enrich Express. To Enrich Silver holders, priority is given at boarding, check-in, baggage handling, and airport standbys etc. Elite Tier Bonus, along with access to Golden Lounge Privilege Programme is also offered. Enrich Gold offers additional privileges of allowances of excess baggage. Enrich Platinum members have the highest benefits and rewards, with highest priority given at reservation wait list, guaranteed seats, 100% allowance of excess baggage etc. Further assistance is providing in traveling, in procuring conveyance, accommodation etc. Enrich proudly claim to have one million members in 240 countries who traveled to 2.5 billion miles by 2005. (“Enrich Loyalty Programme”)(“Enrich”) One important reason why Malaysian Airlines has been able to retain customers is because it has been able to provide one of best in-flight entertainment. Customers have over 500 hours of audio and video programming from which they can select programs of their choice, and hence the name of this entertainment system is “Select”. There are variety of movies and music CDs, around 200 movies and 40 CDs, from which passengers can select entertainment of their choice and can play and watch at their own pace. First Class and Golden Club Class passengers have an additional option of touch-screen TVs on Boeing 747-400 and Boeing 777-200.(“Malaysian Airlines”) MASKargo, which is a subsidiary of Malaysian Airlines, helps MAS retain its customers by providing efficient cargo transportation facilities, which also includes transportation of live animals. This is rare facility, as many airlines don’t provide transportation of animals. Further, it makes sure that the cargo and animals are handled with care and that environmental and safety regulations are not violated. It also tries to minimize resource wastage and environmental pollution by adopting ISO 14001 Environmental Management System. This has impressed and attracted customers, especially environment-concerned customers. (“Environmental Policy”) Besides that Malaysian Airlines is recommitted to ethnics of highest order. It is free from any corruption, practices complete transparency in all public relations and company businesses, offers best conditions and facilities to both its employee and customers, offers proper handling of all baggage and customers with no preference given to travelers of certain class etc. I recommend that further improvements can be made by offering more destinations, better accommodation facilities to transit passengers, on airport and in-flight programmes such movies and music in several languages, more spacious seats for economy class travelers, wide variety of food and drinks for in-flight meals. It will not only attract more customers but also illustrate the image of Malaysia as a friendly, hospitable, beautiful country. Bibliography: 1) Enrich Loyalty Programme, In Wikipedia [Online] Retrieved on March 16 2007 Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enrich_Loyalty_Programe 2) Enrich. Retrieved on March 17, 2007, from Malaysian Airlines Available at: http://hq.malaysiaairlines.com/mys/eng/enrich/enrich/enrich.asp 3) Malaysian Airlines. In Wikipedia [Online]. Retrieved onMarch 16 2007, Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines 4) Past Present and Moving Forward. Retrieved on March 17, 2007, from Malaysian Airlines Available at: http://hq.malaysiaairlines.com/mh/eng/about_us/corporate_info/past_present_and_moving_forward/the_beginning.asp 5) Environmental Policy. Retrieved on March 19,2007, from MASKargo. Available at: http://www.maskargo.com/module.php?folder=about&filename=epolicy Read More