Royal Brunei Airlines Official Site
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Royal Brunei Airlines Route Map
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About Royal Brunei Airlines:
Royal Brunei Airlines or RBA, is the flag carrier airline of the Sultanate of Brunei. It is wholly owned by the Government of Brunei. Its home base is the Brunei International Airport in Berakas, just to the north of the capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan.
Royal Brunei Airlines was established on 18 November 1974 with two Boeing 737s.The airline's first flight was on 14 April 1975 from the new Brunei International Airport to Singapore. Flights to the then British colony of Hong Kong and the city of Kota Kinabalu and Kuching in East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo) started the same day. Early route expansion included services to Manila, Philippines in 1976, and Bangkok, Thailand in 1977.
Royal Brunei acquired a third Boeing 737 in 1980, allowing the airline to reach Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 1981 and Darwin, Australia, in 1983.
After the independence of Brunei from the United Kingdom on 1 January 1984, services commenced to Jakarta, Indonesia, on 3 January, thus linking all the other five capital cities of ASEAN to Brunei.
Three Boeing 757 aircraft were purchased in the mid 1980s to enable the airline to expand to Taipei in 1986, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 1988. In 1990, Royal Brunei began their first flight to Europe when they started services to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, via Bangkok and Dubai. Services to London Gatwick Airport commenced in 1990 via Singapore and Dubai, and changed to London Heathrow Airport in 1991. Also in 1991 routes opened to Perth, Western Australia, and to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, via Dubai.
With the airline's rapid expansion the 737s were sold and Boeing 767 aircraft bought. The delivery of the first Boeing 767 broke a world record when it flew 17 hours and 54 minutes non stop from the Boeing company in Seattle to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, on its way to Brunei. Seven more 767s were delivered, taking the fleet to eight 767s and two Boeing 757s (One of the 757s were sold off to fund the purchase of the new 767s).
In March 1993, Abu Dhabi was added to the route network and flights to Frankfurt and Jeddah were routed through Abu Dhabi instead of Dubai. Bali was the second Indonesian city to be added to the network in May of the same year. Flights to the third destination in Europe, Zürich, commenced in August 1993 via Kuala Lumpur and another new destination Bahrain. Before the end of the year, services to Beijing, China (October), and Cairo, Egypt (November), via Kuala Lumpur and Bahrain, were inaugurated. Royal Brunei sold its last Boeing 737-200s to Aloha Airlines of Hawaii in 1993.
The growth of the network continued in 1994. The delivery of two Fokker 50 aircraft were used to start services to Miri and Labuan in East Malaysia of the same year. Flights to Brisbane, Australia, and Osaka, Japan, commenced the same year in June and December respectively (the Brisbane service was initially routed via Darwin but later upgraded to a nonstop flight). The desire to link all the major Oil and Gas cities on Borneo saw the addition of Balikpapan to the route network in December.
In 1995, services began to Kolkata (Calcutta), India, via Singapore and then on towards Dubai. Two Dornier 228s were purchased in the same year and leased to the Malaysian regional carrier, Hornbill Airways, to connect Brunei by air to Mulu Airport. The service to Cairo was suspended in the middle 1995 due to low passenger numbers.
The F-50s were replaced by the larger and more comfortable F-100 jets in 1996 which fueled expansion to Bintulu. The route to Zürich was suspended in September 1996 to enable Royal Brunei to commence daily services to London Heathrow. Some of the flights to London were routed through Yangon, Burma, and Abu Dhabi, instead of via Singapore and Dubai. Yangon proved uneconomic and was dropped from the route the following year.
In August 1997, a Dornier 228 owned by Royal Brunei Airlines but operated and maintained by Malaysian regional carrier Hornbill Airways, carrying 19 passengers to Miri, crashed into high ground near Miri airport. All 19 passengers and two crew died. The Dornier 228s were sold in 1997 and short haul services connecting Brunei to Miri, Labuan, Mulu and Bintulu were terminated. Surabaya was the fourth Indonesian destination to be added to the network later that year.
Unprofitable routes to Beijing and Osaka were suspended in 1998 and the F-100s were also sold off to Alpi Eagles Airlines in 1998.
Kuwait was added to the network in 2000 and was served via Singapore, Kolkata and Dubai. It was suspended a year later. Services also began to Shanghai Pudong International Airport in 2001. Royal Brunei started online booking facilities the same year.
After years of unprofitable operation, Royal Brunei began major restructuring in year 2003. The plan was for Royal Brunei’s fleet to grow from 9 aircraft in 2003 to 24 aircraft by the year 2013. The fleet of 6 Boeing 767 will be changed to 15 new narrow-bodied aircraft and 8 wide-bodied aircraft. The plan calls for half of the new aircraft to be leased and the others to be purchased. The plan also included new services to Auckland, Tokyo, Ho Chi Minh City, Sydney and Seoul and to increase its frequencies on other flights.
For 2004 to 2010, Royal Brunei will invest US$400 million to buy wide-bodied aircraft. For the year 2008 to 2013, Royal Brunei will invest US$200 million to buy narrow-bodied aircraft to replace the current fleet of B767-300 aircraft and also further increase the number of narrow-bodied aircraft.
In 2003, the deliveries of the new Airbus A319 and A320 marked the start of the re-equipping exercise. Two A319s were delivered on 28 August and 3 September. A320s were added 9 December and 3 January 2005. All of the Airbus were leased from CIT Aerospace of USA in a seven year contract. The Airbuses fly mainly on regional routes. With the introduction of new aircraft, the Boeing 757 has been phased out and sold to other parties.
In May 2003, Royal Skies, the airlines’ frequent flyer programme, was launched.
On 31 October 2003, a Royal Brunei jet touched down at Auckland Airport making it the first destination in New Zealand and the first new destination added to the network as part of the restructuring exercise.
By end of the year 2003, Royal Brunei entered a controversial agreement with Royal Tongan Airlines of Tonga. Under the agreement, Royal Tongan Airlines was to wet-lease one of the two remaining B757s of Royal Brunei. In return, Royal Brunei was given the opportunities to open its market to the US. The deal did not happen because Royal Tongan Airlines went into bankruptcy with huge debt in mid 2004, after less than 6 months of operation. As Royal Tongan Airlines was unable to pay the fees, the B757 was repossessed and stored in Auckland International Airport.
In January 2004, the airline launched Blue Sky Fares, a low cost Internet booking facility, offering cheaper economy class fares to selected destinations, to compete with low cost carriers in the region, such as AirAsia.
Starting in March 2004, four of Royal Brunei’s Boeing 767 aircraft were modified by the introduction of SkyDreamer seats in Business Class to replace the old First Class and Business Class Skyluxe seats. Business Class was renamed as Sky Executive Class and in Economy class each seat was installed with an 8.4 inch TV. Sky Executive Class was subsequently renamed Business Class following poor response from the public.
The unprofitable Taipei route was suspended in late 2004. Kuching and Kolkata were dropped on 31 Oct 2004 due to the rising oil prices, but at the same time, Sydney was added to the route network. Commencing 17 December, flights to Jeddah were routed through Sharjah instead of Abu Dhabi.
The last B757 was retired from the Royal Brunei fleet in early 2005.
Royal Brunei added Ho Chi Minh City to its network list in May 2006, flying there 3 times every week. In July 2007, RBA appointed a new CEO, Ray Sayer. He had previous airline experience at British Airways and Gulf Air. He left this role in early February 2009 after just 20 months in post.
In early September 2007, RBA temporarily suspended flights to Frankfurt am Main as part of its restructuring exercise. Kuching was reintroduced to the network on 1 December 2007, after a break of 3 years.
Royal Brunei Airlines suspended services to Darwin on 26 January 2008, after serving the route for 24 years. Sharjah was also dropped from the network early 2008 when Jeddah flights were routed directly to and from Bandar Seri Begawan. However, Shanghai was "suspended" in April 2008, and Sydney and Bali were dropped from the summer schedule of 2008.
Royal Brunei Airlines was to acquire Boeing 777 extended range aircraft on lease. The first of four Boeing 777-200s for Royal Brunei rolled out from the paintshop in late April 2007, however the lease deal fell through. The B777 aircraft were to be used on the long-haul routes to Europe and Australia to vastly improve RBA's capabilities by offering a higher passenger and cargo load capacity.
On 2 June 2008, Royal Brunei Airlines increased services to Auckland from Bandar Seri Begawan by offering a new direct service three times a week. This direct service is in addition to increase in frequency of the existing route via Brisbane from three to four times a week. (Source: Wikipedia - 2009)
RBA Destinations
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