Victorians and Australians, get ready for more full-service flights to Kuala Lumpur. Malaysian airline Batik Air will launch new flights between Melbourne and KL, bringing greater choice for travel to Southeast Asia and beyond.
Batik Air will operate four-times-weekly flights on the route, utilising its A330-300 aircraft, which will feature 12 business class seats and 365 economy seats.
The new route adds to Batik’s daily Melbourne-Denpasar (Bali) flights.
Melbourne Airport CEO Lorie Argus said the new service would boost two-way tourism and even student travel.
“Having three airline groups offering year-round service between Melbourne and Kuala Lumpur makes this route more competitive than most Australian domestic routes,” she said.
“Batik Air prides itself on being a premium carrier and serves more than 70 destinations across India and Southeast Asia, and we are confident both inbound and outbound travellers will welcome the extra choice.”
The Batik announcement isn’t the only good news of late for Australia’s busiest 24/7 hub. With record international capacity, Melbourne Airport is expanding terminals, airfields and roads to handle more overall passengers.
“To keep pace with demand, we’re working with our airlines to deliver an expansion of the international terminal, and a third runway to ensure our airfield has the capacity to serve Victoria’s growing population,” Argus stated.
Melbourne momentum
In February, 2,729,545 passengers passed through Tullamarine, including 930,356 international travellers, which was 2% up on 2024. However, domestic numbers dropped 7%, to 1,799,189, partly due to the Taylor Swift surge last year.
For the financial year to date, international passenger numbers are up 9% on 2023/24 figures, with domestic traffic up slightly by 0.5%.
Melbourne Airport hit the ground running in 2025, welcoming 3,393,977 passengers in January – the highest monthly total in its history. The milestone surpassed the previous record of 3,322,940 set in December 2019.
