Royal Brunei Cuts Long-Haul Asian Routes

Royal Brunei Airlines is to reduce its network by around a quarter cancelling flights to Auckland, Brisbane, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuching and Perth ahead of the Northern Winter schedules. It will instead focus on its Asian network, with its new Melbourne route (launched in April this year) and its London link (operated via Dubai) set to be its only long-haul flights.

The carrier, 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 now expected to reduce its long-haul fleet and concentrate on providing frequent links within the Asian market. Its network from this winter will comprise 13 destinations - Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Jeddah, Kota Kinabalu, Kuala Lumpur, London, Manila, Melbourne, Shanghai, Singapore and Surabaya.

The first route to end will be its weekly service to Kuching, in Malaysia, which will close from August 1. The other closures will take place from the end of October. Royal Brunei currently provides four flights per week to Auckland, six to Brisbane, three to Ho Chi Minh City and four to Perth, carrying an estimated 70,000 O&D passengers on these routes in the past year.