It is now easier for travellers to book Malaysia Airlines flights online to or from six key destinations in the UK and Ireland.

Passengers arriving or leaving Aberdeen, Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester can now book flights at www.malaysiaairlines.com. While the carrier already serves these routes through a code-share with British Midlands, these tickets could previously by bought only from ticketing offices or travel agents.

Malaysia Airlines executive Dr Amin Khan says the new service makes buying and flying "seamless and hassle free".

Malaysia Airlines fles to London twice daily while BMI offers a range of daily flights to the six destinations.

"We will soon make available online all the European destinations we currently code share with KLM," says Khan. "This is in line with our hub-and-spoke strategy to improve feeder traffic into our trunk routes."

Malaysia Airlines has two daily flights from Kuala Lumpur to London, while BMI connects to Glasgow 27 times a week, Aberdeen 24 times, Dublin 21, Belfast 20, Edinburgh 19 and Manchester 17 times.