Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has confirmed that it took a longer route on its flights to Europe which led to the carrier’s heavily criticised decision to limit baggage.

"Malaysia Airlines uniquely has been using a routing via Egypt which has been up to two hours longer than other carriers,” MAS said in its response to Malaysiakini .

“The length of the route combined with strong headwinds, had limited the airlines' ability to carry baggage and cargo."

Justifying the move, MAS explained that flight routes are planned based on multiple elements, including the type of aircraft, number of engines, equipment on board, fuel tank size, and the availability of alternative airports en route.

“The risk assessment process is complex and varies between each airline's commercial policies,” it said.

The company, it said, does a daily risk assessment which determines its most optimum route.

“This short-term baggage policy was imposed when the airline recently had to operate a longer route to Europe, which, combined with strong headwinds, limited the airlines' ability to carry baggage and cargo.”

The headwinds over the last four days were in excess of 200 knots, which can add up to 15 percent fuel burn on a B777-200 aircraft, MAS said.

MAS’ response comes after London-based weekly The Economist – citing investigation of recent and historical flight-path data - had highlighted a considerable difference in MAS’ chosen routes compared with airlines such as Singapore Airlines, British Airways, and KLM.

Most of the flights take a shorter path over Iran, Turkey, the Black Sea, and Russia or Hungary, avoiding Ukraine airspace completely.

MAS had mostly followed the flight path until Nov 25, but had chosen to fly over parts of Ukraine.

The move to avoid Ukraine is understandable as MAS had suffered the shooting down of one of its aircraft over eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made missile over Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board.

Since then, however, it had taken the southern path over Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Mediterranean.

As a result of this longer southern corridor, the distance between Kuala Lumpur and Amsterdam increased to nearly 7,000 miles, alarmingly close to the Boeing 777-200ER’s maximum range.

“Hence, the unseasonable headwinds have forced it to lighten the payload," The Economist had stated.

MAS’ Paris and Amsterdam flights are served by Boeing 777-200ER, which has a shorter range of 7,065 nautical miles compared to its London flights. That route is served by the Airbus A380s, which have a range of around 8,500 nautical miles.

After announcing the move earlier this week, MAS confirmed yesterday that normal check-in baggage allowances have since been restored on all flights across its network, including services to Amsterdam, London, and Paris.

Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported that MAS will retire and sell its B777-200 planes from its fleet.

This is after the company axed its Amsterdam and Paris routes and partnering Emirates for European destinations.

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