Loss-making Malaysia Airlines to axe routes

Loss-making national carrier Malaysia Airlines said it will cut eight routes to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and other destinations starting next month as it seeks to return to a profit.

The airline, which has struggled to stay in the black in recent years, unveiled a business plan last week aimed at becoming profitable by 2013 that would include a route “rationalization” but did not name the affected routes.

Routes servicing Rome, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Karachi, Dubai, the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam, and the city of Surabaya in Indonesia, will be dropped it said in a statement released late on Wednesday.

They will be phased out at different times throughout January and February.