MALAYSIA Airlines will suspend flights between Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane early next year in response to “increased global economic challenges.”
The flights will be suspended from 27 March, also in part to allow Malaysian to remain on its current growth trajectory, the airline said.
From that date, MH noted customers travelling between Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane will be able to leverage the airline’s codeshare and oneworld partner, Qantas Airways, to connect from Sydney and Melbourne to Brisbane.
Malaysian added the decision comes after undertaking a thorough route rationalisation analysis, as part of its ongoing business review.
“We have made a difficult decision to discontinue our operations into Brisbane to ensure we operate and utilise our fleet at an optimum level, as well as maximising revenue on every route we fly to, while we face strong headwinds from the continued increase in fuel costs, foreign exchange, and interest rates,” Chief Executive Officer Izham Ismail said.
“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.
“We remain focused on ramping up our network to achieve full recovery by 2024”.
Flights between Kuala Lumpur and Malaysian’s other four Australian destinations – Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, and Adelaide – will continue to operate as normal, providing up to 43 direct flights a week between the two countries.
To date, MH has deployed 76% of its capacity of pre-pandemic levels, and anticipates ending the year with 82% network-wide.
