Royal Brunei Continues Network Reductions

Royal Brunei Airlines is to reduce frequencies on some of its South East Asian routes from the first quarter of next year as the rationalisation of its route structure continues. The carrier is already in the process of reducing its network by around a quarter cancelling flights to Auckland, Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuching and Perth ahead of the Northern Winter schedule launch at the end of this month.

Royal Brunei, under its former management, had a focus on the Australasian market providing feed from within Asia, the Middle East and the UK via its Brunei International Airport in Bandar Seri Begawan. However, it is reducing its long-haul fleet and concentrating on just two main routes: Melbourne, launched in April this year and London, operated via Dubai.

Its main focus will now be on the Asian market, but even here there will be capacity cuts, according to the airline’s latest schedule update, with reductions in services to Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila and Surabaya from February 2012. The Thai and Indonesian capitals Bangkok and Jakarta are presently served daily but will be linked just five times per week from February 5; Manila will be served six times weekly rather than daily, while Surabayaflights will be reduced from five to three a week.

However, one market will see an increase in flights with Royal Brunei adding an additional two rotations between Bandar Seri Begawan and Kota Kinabalu bringing total weekly frequencies to 16 from February 1, 2012. The airline is currently the sole operator on the route and carried an estimated 108,000 O&D passengers during the past year.