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.

It will also boost Malaysia's ambition to make Kuala Lumpur International Airport a regional aviation hub as Garuda will increase usage of the airport, the airlines said in a joint statement.

A milestone

Garuda executive vice president Bachrul Hakim said the two airlines had set their sights on "promoting travel and tourism beyond our shores to other parts of the world, increasing passenger numbers and the tourist dollar.

"This is a milestone ... we are confident that Australia, Germany and (Britain) are the first important steps towards a wider network cooperation," he added.

By next month, the third country code share pact will apply to the Kuala Lumpur-London, Kuala Lumpur-Frankfurt and Denpasar-Darwin routes.

"Immediate benefits to passengers are the 'One Ticket to Europe' from Jakarta and Denpasar and for Malaysians, a renewed destination in Darwin, the airlines said.

The two airlines already been working together under a code-share and joint freighter arrangement on flights between the two countries, as well as joint sales and marketing and other services.

Increasing passengers

Malaysia Airlines sales senior general manager Ahmad Fuaad Dahlan said separately that the company's average passenger seat factor fell to 54 percent in April compared with the average of 70 percent for the whole of last year and dipped further to 50 percent last month.

However, this month it has climbed back to around 60 percent, he said, adding: "We have stabilised and we hope to grow further from now on."

He said the airline expects stable growth from July onwards after a weak first quarter to June due to the Sars impact.

Malaysia Airlines will begin operations to Indonesia's Balikpapan in July and Manado in August, followed by Jogjakarta and Padang in October and double daily services to Surabaya.

Garuda will commence services from Surabaya to Kuala Lumpur next month. - AFP