Royal Brunei Airlines continues to service Australia through its hub in Melbourne as part of its streamlining to connect travellers to Asia and beyond.
Noting the city as easily accessible to other major cities for connecting flights, Royal Brunei Airlines Country Manager for Australia, Brett McDougall, told Travel Today that Melbourne suits as it does not have any curfews which allows the airline to operate a through service on the route to London, which is unlike any other airline offerings.
In the past year, Royal Brunei Airlines has successfully relaunched services to Bali and Ho Chi Minh, but have no immediate plans for new destinations.
“Our long haul B787 fleet is currently fully committed on the Melbourne to London route, but there may be new opportunities for new destinations with our short haul fleet once we receive our new A320 aircraft in the next few years,” McDougall added.
According to the Australian Government figures, the airline carried about 134,000 passengers to and from Australia in 2014, a slight increase on the previous year. The key destinations for passengers from Melbourne include London, Dubai, Brunei, Manila, Kota Kinabalu and the new destination Ho Chi Minh City (SGN).
This proves there has been very little negative feedback on the Sharia Law changes from Royal Brunei passengers. McDougall noted that “Australian travellers seem to understand that other countries around the world operate under laws that are different to Australia and understand the need to respect the traditions and cultures of those countries when they are on the ground.”
“The main thing is to make travellers aware of local requirements and then let people make their own choices. Having said that our loads are running really full right now so there don’t seem to be many issues.”
Possibly part of the airline’s success can be attributed to the way they commit to be “Travel Agent friendly airline.”
“We pay good commissions to agents through BSP and we answer the phone promptly. Our Sales and Reservations teams are based in Melbourne and have many years of local experience so can answer virtually any question immediately.”
“We offer agents attractive industry rates for their own travel requirements and our sales team are on the road every week visiting their agents.”
