Malaysia Airlines and Garuda Indonesia today expanded their commercial cooperation to woo travellers from Europe and Australia in the aftermath of the Sars outbreak.

The two national carriers signed a memorandum of understanding to boost their partnership to include a third country code share agreement with flights to Australia, Germany and Britain.

The pact, which also involved an expanded route network between the two countries and other support services, will boost tourism in Southeast Asia following the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (Sars), officials said.