MALAYSIA. Malaysia Airlines parent Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) has partnered with handbag brand Theselina to develop five sustainable handbag collections made from aircraft materials. All products are repurposed from Malaysia Airlines’ aircraft leather seats, belts and buckles, tablecloths, life vests, cabin crew uniforms and other items.
The collaboration with Theselina, a Malaysian brand, “combines luxury and sustainability and underpins MAG’s commitment for a net-zero carbon emission future through upcycling efforts,” said the aviation group in a statement. The handbags, made by Theselina’s team of professional seamsters and seamstresses, are described as “functional, stylish, and entirely versatile to be used on a day-to-day basis”.
The bags are named after IATA codes to destinations within Malaysia Airlines’ network: Buckle Bag; the Sierra Yankee Delta (SYD) Personalised Canvas Bag; the November Romeo Tango (NRT) Messenger Bag; the Mike Yankee Yankee (MYY) Penan Bag; as well as the Mike Echo Lima (MEL) Backpack.
The SYD bag is priced at RM882 (US$210), MYY at RM1,421 (US$340) and the remaining collection at RM2,100 (US$502). The limited-edition bags are also available via MAG’s online marketplace Journify at myjournify.com.
Five Malaysian personalities and sustainability advocates were among the first to purchase the bags. These include Monica Lai, Director of The RuMa Hotel; Datin Shen-Tel Lee, Founder of Kuching Food Aid and Co-founder of Bowerhaus and Sereni & Shentel; Dato’ Azmir Merican, Group Managing Director of Sime Darby Property; Datuk Razlan Razali, Team Principal of RNF MotoGP Racing Team and Yong Yoon Li, Managing Director of Royal Selangor International.
MAG Acting Chief Sustainability Officer and Firefly CEO Philip See said: “Sustainability is one of the key drivers in MAG’s Long-Term Business Plan 2.0 of becoming Asia’s leading travel and aviation services group. As the parent company of the national carrier Malaysia Airlines, MAG continues to forge ways to promote socio-economic development and achieve our commitment of recording net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
“This includes minimising our environmental impacts; positively enhancing the communities we operate in; ensuring safety excellence; driving profitability for the benefit of our stakeholders, employees and ensuring compliance within the organisation.
“We at MAG believe that our customers should be able to enjoy the finer things in life while remaining conscious of our role in caring for the planet. We are proud to show the fruits of what our collaboration with high-end designer Selina Yeop Jr of Theselina has brought, through the repurposing of aircraft materials into bespoke designer bags, allowing us to reduce wastage while [promoting] our flag-bearing brand to the world.”
MAG has taken a range of steps to reduce its carbon footprint, guided by the MAG Sustainability Blueprint launched in 2021. This includes bio-composting food waste from flights, enhancing fuel efficiency measures, repurposing scrapped aircraft parts into new products and most recently, being the first Malaysia-registered commercial aircraft using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
