Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines have officially launched their antitrust-immunized joint venture, with shared fares between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. And what may seem initially obscure for most Americans is actually fascinating.
The metal-neutral alliance on flights between Singapore and Malaysia dates to 2019. Singapore’s regulators blessed it last summer, and Malaysia signed off in January. The deal allows for collusion in revenue sharing, network planning, schedule coordination, fares, distribution and inventory coordination as well as sales and joint marketing. It will also include expanded codeshares, frequent flyer and lounge agreements.
They now offer joint fares between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, which means easier mixing of carriers. They’re working toward reciprocal lounge access, coordinated schedules and joint corporate travel deals.
What’s remarkable is that this isn’t the first time the two airlines have partnered on this route. Singapore and Malaysia Airlines used to be the same airline. Indeed, Singapore and Malaysia used to be the same country.
They’ve Partnered On This Route Before
Singapore Airlines and Malaysia Airlines used to operate a Singapore – Kuala Lumpur shuttle, dating to an August 1982 agreement between the two governments that lasted until 2008.
The two airlines shared capacity and coordinated schedules on the route, offering frequent flights spread throughout the day. It was effectively a walk-up business-traveler product with a common fare (S$400 roundtrip) between the two carriers. Each airine incurred its own costs, split revenue equally, and charged the same fare while Singapore offered 42 weekly flights and Malaysia Airlines 50 weekly flights.
The growth of low cost carriers killed the arrangement, with Tiger Airways and Jetstar Asia initially offering four daily flights in February 2008 and operating without limits come December 2008. That killed the high fare walkup shuttle on the 184-mile route.
Singapore Airlines And Malaysia Airlines Used To Be One Carrier
Malayan Airways became Malaysian Airways and later Malaysia-Singapore Airlines, eventually splitting into Singapore Airlines and Malaysian Airline System.
After Singapore left Malaysia in 1965, Malaysian Airways became Malaysia-Singapore Airlines the next year with the Singapore and Malaysia governments each holding 42.79%, and the balance owned by Brunei, BOAC, Qantas, Straits Steamship and Ocean Steamship.
- Malaysia wanted a national route network serving domestic, rural and East Malaysia
- Singapore, with no domestic market, wanted an international airline centered on Singapore as a hub.
The two airlines announced a split in in January 1971 and began operating separately in October 1972. Singapore Airlines got the Singapore headquarters, the international long haul planes, the computer reservation system, overseas offices, and most of the international network with 22 cities in 18 countries.
Malaysian Airline System kept the fleet of Fokker F27s and Britten-Norman aircraft planes as wlel as the domestic Malaysian routes in order to connect sprawling Malaysia.
Singapore initially incorporated as Mercury Singapore Airlines, preserving the initials “MSA.” Malaysia didn’t buy that because it would have allowed Singapore keep the predecessor’s brand equity. Of course, Singapore Airines now has a much better brand! Eventually Singapore dropped “Mercury” and the MSA initials, becoming Singapore Airlines.
Why Singapore And Malaysia Split In The First Place
Singapore was ultimately expelled from Malaysia because it was too ethnically Chinese, too much wealthier (even though it was quite poor by today’s standards), its leaders sought too much influence over the Malaysian federation and they were too ideologically incompatible with the ruling coalitions of the rest of the country. At the same time, the promised unified market that was meant to drive growth in Singapore hadn’t developed.
The Federation of Malaysia added Singapore on September 16, 1963 along with Malaya, Sarawak and North Borneo – Sabah. It didn’t last two years. Singapore ceased to be a state of Malaysia on August 9, 1965.
- Singapore’s governing party wanted a multiracial, meritocratic political system that was an existential threat to the Alliance coalition’s race-based parties. PAP wanted to appeal to ethnic Chinese, to non-Malay parties and Malays as well (over a broad a “Malaysian Malaysia”). The country broke up over racial antagonism and a political power struggle.
- Singapore’s People’s Action Party was supposed to govern Singapore, leaving the rest of the country to be governed by other parties. Both sides violated that agreement.
- Alliance leaders accused Singapore’s PAP of mistreating Malays in Singapore and denying them ‘special rights.’ Singapore’s leaders didn’t want special racial rights at all. The constitution had permanent Malay set asides while Singapore argued for economic growth and education to address Malay poverty. This difference challenged the ideological foundation of the Malaysian ruling coalition and culminated in race riots in Singapore in 1964.
- Kuala Lumpur slow-walked economic integration and a common market, while threatening to tax Singapore more heavily. It held 17% of the population, but contributed 40% of taxes in 1964 and faced threats to increase that to 60%.
This is obviously a stylized and condensed version of a complicated history between the two countries. But it’s fascinating to see the occasional and once-again rapprochement between the national carriers of the two nations, that themselves once used to be one.
And they’re together connecting two of the best food cities in the world, very close to each other – and for those who haven’t been, Kuala Lumpur is one of the bext reasonably-priced luxury hotel markets in the world too.
If mainline legacy carriers are that afraid of LCCs like Air Asia, SQ is already ‘competing’ via Scoot. So, this JV seems more about coordinating with their competitor on the premium segment.
Anyway, it’s still amazing that SQ and MH can offer a full meal service to J on the 1:10 flight between KUL-SIN (where actual air-time spent above 10,000 feet is maybe 20 minutes). Yet, US carriers won’t serve a hot meal unless the route is at least 900 miles (let them eat Biscoff!) Psh. And, it’s not labor holding this back; it’s corporate cutting costs on the food. Because of the oligopoly in the US, and a lot of captive hubs, US carriers compete on service less and less. Sad.
This is a very sugar coated version of the split between Malaysia and Singapore. In actual fact, Singapore was expelled from the Federation because Malaysia demanded special privileges for Malays – which it still demands inside its Malay ethnostate today – and would not accept a majority Chinese state with a democratically elected Chinese and non-Muslim majority government.
Malaysia assumed that it would regain Singapore by coercion — not only as a result of its own actions but also those of hostile Indonesia which Malaysia thought would send Singapore looking back to it for protection — and nobody could have predicted that it would have become such an incredible success, far surpassing not only Malaysia, but Europe as well.
Incidentally, it is technically correct to say that Singapore was wealthier than Malaysia on average, but this is not an apples to apples comparison because Singapore was just a city and the wealth of Malaysia was averaged with lots of much poorer rural areas. Georgetown and the towns along the Straits were wealthier than Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur was a financial center roughly on par with Singapore and with far more natural resources. Singapore’s wealth was created, essentially from nothing and in any case had nothing to do with its expulsion from the Federation.
@Mak – I highlight the conflict over special rights for Malays and Singapore’s opposition to that in the post.
@Gary Leff — If you wanted to get real petty, you should’ve reminded the Singaporeans that Kuala Lumpur has taller skyscrapers. (You’re bound to get hate-mail in these threads no matter what you say, so why not go for gold!)
And, I wanna be clear, I’m saying… KL literally looks down on Singapore… you know, from way up there in Merdeka 118 and the Petronas Towers… just sayin… *flicks booger* (@Mike Hunt…)
@Gary, I’m just emphasizing that Singapore’s expulsion was overwhelmingly about perpetuation of the Malay-Muslim ethnostate in Federative Malaysia and their special privileges at the expense of non-Malay citizens – which continues in rump Malaysia until today.
I will quibble though with another point . . . Singapore and Kuala Lumpur might be two of the greatest food cities in absolute terms as compared to the world at large, but in comparative terms the food in KL is far better than the food in Singapore.
@Mak — Sheesh, you might as well declare ‘war’ on here…
I mean, your wallet will definitely feel better eating in KL than paying for the inflated Singapore hawker food prices. Besides, as soon as it’s the weekend, half of Singapore flees across the causeway to JB to buy cheap groceries, gas, and meals, all while looking down on the country funding their lifestyle discounts.
@1990 There is no comparison between the two as far as quality of life – Singapore wins on every other metric – but the quality of food in Singapore is in decline and the food in Malaysia is still better, and as a bonus is also less expensive. This is one thing that everybody on both sides of the Causeway can agree.
@Mak — The irony is that SQ is kinda stagnating (same old business class from over a decade ago), while MH is actually upgrading aircraft (350, 339, etc.) with new cabins (suites with doors, etc.) Fine, SQ’s 737max with lie-flat are better than MH’s recliners, but still.
YIKES! Malaysia can’t properly maintain their aircraft by replacing batteries in the ELT. They, probably, still have the gate available should their 777 ever make it to the destination. I wouldn’t fly on them at all! Singapore Airlines is supposed to be one of the best airlines.
@Win Whitmire — Ouch. C’mon, MH17 was shot down by the Russians. MH370, yeah, not great.
@Mak – “Singapore and Kuala Lumpur might be two of the greatest food cities in absolute terms as compared to the world at large, but in comparative terms the food in KL is far better than the food in Singapore.”
1) So that’s not a quibble because you agree my statement is correct.
2) Singapore has some of the best cheap eats and fine dining, while KL’s food at the lower end is better. And there’s a reasonable case to be made that the best food in Malaysia is not even in KL (and that the KL suburbs are even better than the city, too).
Singapore Airlines flies widebody long hauls. Malaysia Airlines largely flies regional routes.
It kind of makes sense. More potential traffic for both.
Food in KL is far less expensive than Singapore, but let’s face it. If you’re eating in either location…It’s a great day.
@DanG — Dang right!
“Singapore was ultimately expelled from Malaysia”
That’s one way of describing it 😉
@OtherSteve – Singapore actually was expelled from Malaysia. In the middle of the night in a secret meeting no less. As @Gary said it’s a complicated subject but economically Malaysia feared Singapore and socially Malaysia despised Singapore’s refusal to create what effectively would have been an apartheid system.
@Christian — Not to nerd out too much here, but what happened to Singapore, would be as if the US forced NYC to become an independent city state. (I know, our Constitution, and our nation’s history, isn’t keen on secession, so, it would have to be the federal government forcing NYC out, not NYC ‘leaving.’)
Hear me out, if for any reason, say, because NYC was becoming politically dominant, advocating for taxing the wealthy, etc. (or, to parallel Singapore, advocating that it’s excessive taxes not fund the ‘heritage’ Americans in poorer red states… again, just go with it…), the President and Congress actively wanted to expel NYC, the Singapore model would likely go as follows:
1) Congress passes legislation declaring NYC a sovereign foreign nation (Supreme Court remains silent.)
2) NYC launches its own currency or “dollarizes,” slashing taxes to trade directly with global markets.
3) The city secures international treaties for upstate water and grid electricity, mirroring Singapore’s historic water deals with Malaysia.
4) The NYPD is reorganized into a national military force, while all bridges, tunnels, and subways instantly become international border checkpoints. (Shh, shh, ignore PANYNJ, Amtrak, MetroNorth, LIRR, etc., we’re just having fun here.)
And, if NYC has an effective, benevolent dictatorship, like Singapore, sans-caning (or, was caning the whole reason things worked out so well? No…), maybe, it’ll be celebrated as a success… or it’ll fail miserably (which could have happened to Singapore, too, but did not.) “It can never happen here…” (or can it?) Humor me!
The best food is in Indonesia. Also the least expensive. These two tiny countries. . .
@jack the ladd — I’ve tried, and failed, to find nasi goreng in NYC as good as over there, but, nope. Gotta actually go. Rendang may be my all-time favorite Indonesian dish, though. (Sorry, Bali.)
@1990 – I don’t disagree with your assessment or the analogy. I was just responding to the seeming skepticism. If you visit the museums in Singapore (they really should be air conditioned) they’ll go into great detail on this. Rather justifiable IMO since they kinda got the shaft although look who’s laughing now…
@Christian — Yup, Lee Kuan Yew wept on TV in 1965, yet Singapore’s GDP per capital makes Malaysia look like pocket change. Also, if Changi can air-condition a literal indoor rainforest (Jewel), the National Museum deserves at least a little climate control.
Oh, and I’m gonna kick-it-up-a-notch on my NYC-as-Singapore analogy (bam!) Let’s imagine we in the newly sovereign NYC resist the urge to devolve into a civil war over alternate-side parking and congestion pricing, and instead focus on forming a new, global flagship carrier to project our soft power (cough Singapore Airlines cough). We shall call it “Gotham Airways,” paint the Batman sign on the tail, and feature a full pastrami tray from Katz’s Deli and a hot bagel service on the LGA-DCA shuttle. Rest assured, there shall be reliable AC in our Gotham lounges. (And free WiFi on-board. We’re not savages.)
@1990 – Lol.