In an announcement curiously entitled ‘Service Improvements’, Malasyia Airlines has advised that its Golden Lounges in Perth and Singapore will be closing as of September 1. Passengers departing from these two locations will be offered alternative lounge access.
Perth
In Perth, Business Class passengers on Malaysia Airlines will be invited to use the current Qantas Lounge.
As Malaysia Airlines is part of the oneWorld alliance, oneworld Emerald and Sapphire tier-members will also be using the Qantas Lounge prior to their flights.
The Qantas Lounge is near the current Malaysia Airlines Golden Lounge, across from Gate 2. The furthest gate, Gate 5 is approximately only 15 meters away from the lounge.
Singapore
For passengers departing from Singapore, Business class passengers, Enrich Platinum and Gold members travelling on Economy Class will be invited to use the Premier Lounge starting 1 September 2015.
As the Premier Lounge is a 3rd party lounge, travellers with Emerald or Sapphire oneWorld status, may find accessing a lounge a bit more complicated. There is no alternative oneWorld lounge in Singapore Terminal 2, with most of the oneWorld airlines operating out of Terminal 1. This makes oneWorld lounges, such as the British Airways and Qantas quite a distance from the departure gates that Malaysia Airlines uses.
The new Malaysia Airlines
The closure of the lounges is occuring on the same day that the new airlines that replaces Malaysia Airlines is scheduled to begin operations. While there has not been a lot of news on the new brand, Malaysia did issue the new, unnamed, airline with its Air Operators Certificate (AOC) last week.
Malaysia Airlines has also announced a number of schedule reductions. In the case of Perth, it will only be operating a single flight per day, so it makes sense that it would move to using another lounge rather than maintain their own.