Royal Brunei Airlines lures Singaporeans with new aircraft

ROYAL Brunei Airlines (RBA) is targeting to court more Singaporeans into Brunei with the deployment of two new Airbus A320 aircraft on the Singapore-Brunei route from September.

The new aircraft will feature rebranded interiors and higher passenger comfort levels, and will be utilised for one of the existing 14 flights between Singapore and Brunei each week, according to Dermot Mannion, RBA’s deputy chairman.

At the launch of the newly refurbished RBA office in Singapore, Mannion said more details about the aircraft will be unveiled later this year.

He said: “We are looking at providing our passengers the latest in-flight entertainment and they are going to be very happy to see what we have to offer.”

Among the 14 flights, two of them have been operated by the B787 dreamliners on Fridays and and Sundays since September 2013, and Mannion said this service has been “very well received” and will hence continue.

He shared that the current passenger load factor on the Singapore-Brunei route is over 70 per cent, with 40 per cent comprising Singaporeans and the rest from Brunei.

Separately, RBA last year also placed order with Airbus for seven A320neo aircraft and three options, in line with its latest phase of fleet modernisation. It will start taking delivery of the two-class premium layout A320 in 2018. When delivered, the aircraft will be deployed from capital Bandar Seri Begawan on the carrier’s Asian network.

Outside of Asia, the Bruneian flag carrier also operates flights to Melbourne, London and Dubai. Mannion said: “Right now our main focus is to build up traffic on our existing routes and continue developing traffic from our longhaul routes from these points.”

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