Malaysia Airlines Partners PayPal for Faster and Safer Mobile Payment Option

SUBANG, Malaysia, July 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Malaysia Airlines has teamed up with PayPal to become the first airline in Southeast Asia providing faster and safer mobile payments in as little as two clicks on any Internet-connected mobile device.  The national carrier's MHmobile app and flymas.mobi mobile site now accept PayPal for all its domestic flights and from Malaysia to its international destinations, booked from anywhere in the world.

Al-Ishsal Ishak, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Promotions, Malaysia Airlines, and Rahul Shinghal, Director of Mobile, PayPal Asia Pacific, at the launch of Southeast Asia's first airline mobile app integrated with PayPal.

As an extension of this convenience, PayPal's mobile checkout experience for Malaysia Airlines flights from other areas will be rolled out in phases in the near future.

In conjunction with the launch of this improved customer experience option, Malaysia Airlines' Enrich will be rewarding its loyalty programme members with 500 Enrich miles per transaction made using PayPal on mobile devices from 5 July 2012 to 5 October 2012.

To commemorate this launch, Malaysia Airlines is offering promotional all-in fares from as low as RM150 for Malaysian domestic travel and starting fares of RM340 for ASEAN destinations. Customers may start booking from 5 July 2012 - 8 July 2012 for travel from 5 July 2012 - 31 October 2012 to enjoy these offers, which are not restricted to PayPal users but open to all.

The phenomenal growth of smartphones and the mobile commerce market in Malaysia and worldwide brought about this decision by Malaysia Airlines. In 2011, Malaysia Airlines saw an increase of 500% in average daily bookings via MHmobile.

According to the recent PayPal Mobile Shopping Insights 2011 study, the mobile commerce market in Malaysia grew from RM101 million in 2010 to RM467 million in 2011, representing more than a 370% jump in just one year. The mobile commerce market is also forecasted to grow more than seven times to reach RM3.43 billion in 2015. There were 642,770 Malaysians who made a purchase through a mobile device in 2011 and the median spend increased to RM500 per mobile shopper in 2011. Booking of airline tickets was in the top five mobile shopping categories for Malaysians worth RM32 million in total mobile transactions in 2011. More importantly, airline ticket booking is a top three category for future purchases on smartphones.

The Malaysia Airlines' customer experience is further enhanced with the introduction of PayPal's faster, safer mobile payment service. Booking and paying for an airline ticket can be done in half the time when paying via PayPal as compared to other online payment options. Customers can simply login to their PayPal account with their email address and password, then confirm the payment in as little as two clicks. To provide a more secure transaction, no financial details are stored on the mobile device and PayPal never shares its users' information with any merchants.

Malaysia Airlines, Senior Vice President, Marketing & Promotions, Al-Ishsal Ishak said, "Since the launch of MHmobile in 2009, we've seen an upward trend of recurring customers of which 70% of the transactions are made by Enrich members. More and more customers are turning to mobile these days and we are working towards enhancing the customer experience by ensuring safer, smoother transactions via mobile devices. We believe our collaboration with PayPal will provide our customers with just what they need in today's fast-paced and mobile-centric lifestyle," he added.

PayPal Asia Pacific Director of Mobile, Rahul Shinghal said, "Recognizing that consumers have a 'store in their pocket' and want to shop anytime and anywhere on their mobile devices, merchants across the Asia Pacific region who innovated and adopted our industry-leading mobile checkout solution were rewarded with on average a six-fold increase in their mobile sales in 2011. Malaysia Airlines provides a world-class airline ticketing experience on mobile devices and we're happy to enable their mobile ticketing app and site with our simpler, safer mobile payment service."

MHMobile app is available on iOS and Android devices and now also on Nokia Windows Phone mobile devices. PayPal's mobile checkout solution has been integrated with the SITA mobile ticketing system. SITA is used by more than 500 airlines worldwide.

To start using the service, customers may logon to flymas.mobi via their smartphones or download the MHmobile app to book their travels of choice via Malaysia Airlines.

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