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Malaysia Airlines resumes Brisbane; provides A350 delivery update
January 12th 2018
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) is in expansion mode. Read More » Following the resumption of flights to Surabaya on October 29, the Malaysian carrier this week announced its return to Brisbane with a four a week A330-300 service from June 6. MAB terminated its Kuala Lumpur-Brisbane flights in August 2015 as part of a network wide restructuring at the carrier. The carrier’s A330-300s are fitted with 27 lie-flat business and 263 economy class seats.
“MAB needs to be agile in order to respond quickly to market demands. We are very excited to be re-instating Brisbane to our network. Brisbane is strategically placed, in close proximity to many of Queensland’s tourist destinations, which will facilitate our growth plans that are focusing on key business and leisure cities,” said MAB CEO, Captain Izham Ismail.
“Malaysia Airlines has had a long presence in Queensland since the commencement of our operations into Brisbane on 31st October 1990.”
MAB intends to re-establish itself as a serious contender into Australia. The airline flies double daily to both Sydney and Melbourne, daily to Perth, four times a week to Adelaide.
MAB will soon replace the A380 now plying the London route with the A350-900. Following crew familiarization rotations between Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, Singapore, Penang and Kota Kinabalu, MAB will roster the A350 to London from January 15.
The flag carrier has taken delivery of two A350s. MAB told Orient Aviation this week that its third XWB would be delivered in February, “right before Chinese New Year” (which starts on February 16) and the fourth airframe will join its fleet in March, it said.
MAB is the only airline to have opted for a first class cabin on the A350, comprising a single row with four seats.
The oneworld member told Orient Aviation on Wednesday it would start inducting six ex-airberlin A330-200s into its fleet from “the end of March”, which refutes media reports that suggested the wide bodies would join the airline’s fleet next month. The -200s will largely replace B737-800s on high demand trunk routes, including Kuala Lumpur to Bali, Hong Kong and Bangkok.
