KUALA LUMPUR, June 10 — Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) is set to offer passengers more affordable business class flights by allowing them to pay less by cutting out some of the frills.

The airline’s chief executive Christoph Mueller said customers are expected to be able to pick and choose a cheaper package, such as foregoing access to the lounge for business class flyers or accumulation of frequent flyer points.

“We want to go modular so that people can build their own product.

“Customers might book a business-class seat, but opt out of the miles or lounge access. Or they could take a day flight in economy to Australia and return in business overnight. Our current systems cannot deliver that,” he was quoted saying during the recent Aviation Week by Australian news portal news.com.au.

Mueller reportedly expressed hope for MAB, formerly Malaysian Airline System (MAS), to be a “value carrier” where passengers can add on to basic product offerings if they were willing to pay more.

As part of steps to return MAB to profit, Muller said new information technology will be used to roll out a better booking system.

The improved booking system will allow customers to “build their own product”, with the airline expected to skip travel agents and sell more tickets directly to customers.

Low-cost carrier AirAsia operates on a no-frills model where customers purchase add-ons for their seats, including check-in luggage space, meals and insurance, privileges to board the plane early, among other things.

The national carrier was delisted in August after sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional offered to buy out minority shareholders for a total of RM1.38 billion to restructure MAS.

As part of the RM6 billion restructuring plan to return MAS to profits in three years’ time, the airline has recently terminated the employment of 6,000 out of some 20,000 staff and will end unprofitable flight routes.

MAB has since replaced MAS as the legal entity of the airline.