The Covid-19 Wrap is part of WiT’s “Unity In Crisis” series, a weekly round-up of news on the coronavirus and its impact on travel.
Malaysia Airlines to fly home travellers stranded overseas
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is reinstating some of its international flights between April to May to bring home travellers and families who are stuck abroad due to travel restrictions imposed by many countries due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Its group chief executive officer Captain Izham Ismail said as the national carrier it was their duty to ensure Malaysia remained accessible domestically and internationally during these difficult times.
“Many customers from Malaysians to foreigners have reached out to our global offices requesting for available flights mostly between Kuala Lumpur to Australia and New Zealand, as well as to Kuala Lumpur onward to London.
“Being a network carrier, Malaysia Airlines is able to maintain connectivity and bring our customers direct or closest to their intended destination. And being Malaysia’s national carrier, it is our duty to ensure accessibility for Malaysia domestically and internationally during these difficult times.
Flights being reinstated are those to and from Auckland (New Zealand); Melbourne, Sydney and Perth (Australia); Jakarta (Indonesia); and Guangzhou (China). The complete schedules for the flights are in the chart below.
Since Malaysia enforced the Movement Control Order (MCO), starting 18 March until 14 April, the airline has had to significantly reduce its reduce its overall network, both domestic and international frequencies and schedules. It is running at minimum mostly to facilitate essential travels and cargo movement.
With the reduction in passenger flights the carrier has been helping the country’s Ministry of Health (MOH) by providing space across the domestic and international network and on MABkargo’s global freighter network for the transport of medical devices and supplies.
“Most recently we transported two tonnes of face masks and personal protection equipment from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu as well as 300,000 pieces of disposable masks, 50,000 pieces of protection suit and 8000 pieces of protection suit with eye mask, courtesy of the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation from Shanghai to Kuala Lumpur,” said Captain Izham.
Domestically, Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and MASwings facilitate movement of goods and medical staff across Peninsular Malaysia, crossings and within Sabah/Sarawak.
Captain Izham said the three airlines have standby aircraft at Subang Airport, KL International Airport and Kota Kinabalu International Airport to initiate rapid mobilisation of medical staff and professionals, in additiion to other patients (non Covid-19) to support MOH’s capacity and resource management efforts across Malaysia.
Green shoots of recovery for Langham Group in China
Langham Hospitality Group is starting to see a “glimmer of relief” in the form of a decreasing number of cases of confirmed infections in mainland China, and its hotels have initiated the first phase of a recovery plan for the rest of the year.
“As an industry we are under tremendous pressure, but it is heartening to observe that domestic travel in mainland China is beginning to rise and that calls have started coming in for hotel stays,” said Stefan Leser, chief executive officer of Langham Hospitality Group.
As part of its efforts to help stem the spread of the virus, the company has implemented rigorous measures at The Langham and Cordis hotels around the world.
In addition, travellers who are currently grounded or are hesitant to travel over the next few months are provided a full refund. The group will also waive all related fees on cancellations or changes made on direct individual bookings for stays through 31 May 2020 at any of The Langham and Cordis hotels in its portfolio. (Bookings made by a travel agent or an online travel agency can be cancelled or changed through the platform on which the booking was originally made.)
“Our hearts are with the millions of people who have been affected by this unprecedented crisis,” said Leser. “At all of our 22 hotels around the world, we want to ease the minds of guests who wish to cancel or change their reservations with us that we will make that process as easy as possible.”
He also gives the assurance to the inhouse guests that the hotels under the group “remain vigilant and steadfast in our commitment to provide every individual at our hotels with the highest standard of safety and hygiene.”
The company has created a declaration form for all guests to fill out regarding their recent travels and has implemented a process by which every guest, colleague, vendor and delivery persons will have their temperature checked before entering the hotel.
RedDoorz offers free accommodation to frontliners fighting Covid-19
Online hotel management and booking platform RedDoorz has launched ‘Red Heroes’, a regional initiative that provides free temporary accommodation for emergency services and frontline healthcare staff battling the coronavirus.
As part of the Red Heroes initiative the company will also distribute well-being kits in the rooms, each containing washable face masks, alcohol-based hand sanitisers, energy drinks and droplet hats.
“As a regional company deeply rooted in South-east Asia, we have been closely monitoring the ever-evolving situation and the impact of COVID-19 in our region. The pandemic outbreak has resulted in immense stress across countries and industries, in particular for the tourism, hospitality and now healthcare sectors. As a result, we identified ways in which we could lend our support in offering targeted aid for those on the frontlines of this crisis,” said Amit Saberwal, CEO and founder of RedDoorz
That was the reason behind the Red Heroes initiative, he added. “ We are positive that we will be able to overcome this challenge if we stand together. We hope more companies with the means to support the initiative will participate during this challenging time.”
The Red Heroes initiative is being rolled out in the Philippines, Indonesia and Singapore.
In the Philippines, RedDoorz partnered with the Department of Tourism and Manila City government to provide accommodation for medical practitioners residing in the capital amid the Luzon-wide lockdown.
In Indonesia, the company worked with the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy to give frontline medical worker in treating coronavirus cases in Jakarta hospitals free room stay.
In Singapore, RedDoorz is collaborating with the Ministry of Manpower to help house foreign workers entering and returning to Singapore who have to comply with the mandatory 14-day ‘Stay-Home-Notice’. With the implementation of the Movement Control Order in Malaysia (18 March-14 April) the firm is also providing alternative lodging for Malaysians working in the city-state who have been affected by the lockdown.
It addition, RedDoorz is looking at alternative ways to support the various initiatives by the Singapore government, including the supply of rooms for frontline healthcare professionals.
Spike in bookings for Australian serviced apartment hotels
While hotels worldwide have seen sharp drops in occupancy due to travel restrictions and implementation of lockdown in countries worldwide to combat the virus outbreak, Australia’s SKYE Hotel Suites have seen the reverse.
The serviced apartment hotels has this week (of March 30) seen a spike in bookings from people who need a quiet space to work or while waiting for flights and borders to reopen.
In response to these changing needs of travellers the serviced apartments have entered into the long-stay market, which has led to a 7% lift in forward bookings for April.
Owned by Australia-based Crown Group Holdings (Crown Group), which specialises in property development and serviced apartments, the SKYE Suites brand was launched in August 2017 with the opening of SKYE Suites Parramatta, part of a mixed-use residential, retail and hotel development. This was followed by SKYE Suites Sydney a year later in October. A third property, SKYE Suites Green Square in Sydney, is scheduled to open later this year.
“This rapidly changing travel landscape has had a dramatic effect on hotel bookings at our two hotels, in Sydney and Parramatta,” said Crown Group chief operating officer Pierre Abrahamse.
“But since we went out with our messaging and new pricing earlier this month for a long-stay offering we’ve seen a noticeable spike in bookings from people looking for a quiet space to work from a home away from home or while they work remotely.
He revealed a company CEO has booked for a three-month stay so he can work in a quiet place, while a doctor stationed in Sydney temporarily is staying for a month.
Abrahamse added the hotels are perfectly set up for this type of stay as they are self-contained urban retreats. “Guests can do their own cooking and washing, order takeaway from the restaurants downstairs, and enjoy their own entertainment on huge flat-screen TVs, just as they would at home. They literally don’t need to step out the door to enjoy a nice lifestyle.”
WHO launches Covid-19 WhatsApp service
The World Health Organisation, in partnership with Facebook and WhatsApp, has launched a dedicated messaging services in Arabic, English, French and Spanish “to keep people safe from coronavirus”.
The organisation said this easy-to-use messaging service has the potential to reach two billion people and enables it to get information directly into the hands of the people that need it.
The service provides the latest news and information on coronavirus including details on symptoms and how people can protect themselves and others. It also has the latest situation reports and numbers in real-time to help government decision-makers protect the health of their populations.
The service can be accessed by a link that opens a conversation on WhatsApp. Users can simply type “hi”, “hola”, “salut” or “مرحبا” to activate the conversation, prompting a menu of options that can help answer their questions about COVID-19.
The WHO Health Alert was developed in collaboration with Praekelt.Org, using Turn machine learning technology.
Here’s how to join WHO’s health alert:
• Arabic: Send “مرحبا” to +41 22 501 70 23 on WhatsApp
• French: Send “salut” to +41 22 501 72 98 on WhatsApp
• Spanish: Send “hola” to +41 22 501 76 90 on WhatsApp
• English: Send “hi” to +41 79 893 18 92 on WhatsApp
Jack Ma and Alibaba foundations support Asia in coronavirus battle with medical supplies donation
The Jack Ma Foundation and the Alibaba Foundation is helping Asian countries combat the spread of Covid-19 with donations of face mask and essential medical supplies.
To date the two foundations have donated to 23 Asian countries. The latest recipients are Azerbaijan, Bhutan, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam that will get 1.7 million face masks, 165,000 test kits, protective gear and medical equipment such as ventilators and forehead thermometers.
Donations to the Asian countries totalled 7.4 million masks, 485,000 test kits, 100,000 sets of protective clothing and other medical equipment.
“We are one with the global community in the intense battle to protect all families against Covid-19. We are committed to doing everything we can to make a difference, most importantly by sourcing these supplies and overcoming logistical challenges to get the medical supplies to where they are needed as fast as we can,” said the Jack Ma Foundation.
These donations are among a number of aid initiatives from the Alibaba Foundation and Jack Ma Foundation to support countries affected by the Covid-19 crisis, sourcing and delivering various types of medical supplies to countries across Asia, North America, Latin America, Europe and Africa.
The donation to Vietnam is in addition to the recent donation by Lazada Group, Alibaba Group’s local e-commerce business unit in South-east Asia
The two foundations also supported the publication of a handbook with key lessons and experience from doctors, healthcare workers and hospital administrators at the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (FAHZU), who were on the frontline of COVID-19 treatment in China and crucial to slowing its spread. The handbook is available for global medical health professionals here.