Malaysia Airlines ferries Chinese medical experts across the nation

KLIA, 26 April 2020: Malaysia Airlines is proud to serve the nation by providing integral connectivity for the contingent of medical experts handpicked by China’s National Health Commission, who aim to share their expertise in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the nation and the world at large.

The medical experts, who hail from Guangdong province in China, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on 19 April, to provide indispensable aid to the nation by evaluating the local hospital services and providing firsthand advice on the best way to address the pandemic. The team comprises of eight delegates with a high degree of proficiency and specialization in respirology, intensive care, psychiatry, infectious diseases, data analysis, virology and traditional Chinese medicine led by Mr Li Jun.

Malaysia Airlines ferried the group from Kuala Lumpur to Kuching today on MH2536 that departed at 2:05pm from Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) CEO Captain Izham Ismail and MABkargo CEO Ibrahim Salleh greeted the team of medical experts and delegate from the Ministry of Health led by Deputy Health Minister, YB Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang. Representatives from the People’s Republic of China were also present.

From Kuching, Malaysia Airlines will fly the contingent to Kota Kinabalu before heading back to Kuala Lumpur at the end of the month.

With the experts estimated to spend around two weeks in the nation, Malaysia Airlines is happy to play its part in ensuring that the nation benefits as much as it can from the gracious help provided the Chinese Government.

According to Captain Izham, “The extra service that we provide today is for the benefit of all Malaysians. Especially in times of crisis, we must prioritise doing our best to address the management of the pandemic in the country, and as the national carrier, it means we carry an additional responsibility to go above and beyond the call of duty.”

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, airlines under the Malaysia Aviation Group – Malaysia Airlines, MABkargo, MASwings and Firefly support Malaysia’s Ministry of Health (MOH) with movement of health equipment and supplies as well as offering to fly medical staff across its domestic and international network including rural areas within Sabah and Sarawak. The airlines have also positioned standby aircraft at Subang Airport, KLIA and Kota Kinabalu International Airport to initiate rapid mobilization of medical staff and professionals as well as other (non-COVID-19) patients to support MOH's capacity/resource management efforts across Malaysia.