Malaysia Airlines announced it will suspend services between Kuala Lumpur (KUL) and Brisbane (BNE) from 27 March 2023 however the carrier will continue up to 43 direct flights between KUL and Australia per week.
The airline cited increased global economic challenges and to remain on a growth trajectory as reasons for the move.
The airline currently operates a daily direct service from BNE to KUL. The last flight on this route will depart Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur on 26 March 2023 via MH134.
The other four existing destinations – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide – will continue to operate as usual with non-stop flights between these cities and KUL.
Just last month, Malaysia Airlines announced additional seasonal services from Melbourne and Sydney to Kuala Lumpur over the summer holiday period with Melbourne receiving two extra flights per week and one extra flight for Sydney.
Malaysia Airlines Berhad Group CEO Captain Izham Ismail said: “After a thorough business review, we made a difficult decision to discontinue our operations into Brisbane to ensure we operate our fleet at an optimum level and maximise revenue on every route while we face strong headwinds from the continued increase in fuel costs, foreign exchange and interest rates.”
“Our forward booking to other Australian cities is very encouraging with strong demand up to and beyond the first quarter of 2023 and significantly ahead of the same period in 2019.”
He said that Australia has rebounded quickly and, excluding the suspension of Brisbane, Malaysia Airlines’ Australia network will be at 98 per cent capacity of pre-pandemic levels by March 2023.
“We anticipate ending the year with 82 per cent capacity of pre-pandemic levels network-wide and remain focused on ramping up our network to achieve full recovery by 2024,” he said.
For more info, head to malaysiaairlines.com/au
