Malaysia Airlines (MAB) has set January 15 next year as the date it will launch its new A350s on the Kuala Lumpur-London Heathrow route.
According to Holland’s Luchtvaartnieuws the three-class A350s will initially serve one of the two daily flights which MAB operates on this route.
The other flight will remain rostered for the current three-class A380s until early March.
Two A350s are required to operate a single daily flight between Kuala Lumpur and London.
Only when a further two A350s are delivered by March will MAB be able to operate both its daily London services with A350s.
At that time its six A380s will be removed from scheduled service (the superjumbo operates only the London route) with the intention of converting them for pilgrim flights to Saudi Arabia.
In total MAB will be leasing six A350s and the other two aircraft will be deployed on regional services.
CEO Peter Bellew has, for the time being, abandoned plans for a return to Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris CDG.
According to flightglobal.com the A350s will cost 30 Per cent less to operate on the London route compared to the A380s.
Each A350 has two engines as against four for the A380 which means better fuel economy. In addition the A350 means MAB will have 200 fewer seats to fill which will gives it the opportunity to sell capacity at a higher price.
According to the carrier’s website MAB will launch A350 service on January 15.
The A350 will operate the daytime MH4 from Kuala Lumpur to London returning the same day on overnight flight MH1 from London, which arrives in Kuala Lumpur the following day in the mid-afternoon.
On March 5 the A350s will also take over the second flight. This departs Kuala Lumpur in the late evening to arrive into London early the following morning. It returns mid-morning from London to arrive back into Kuala Lumpur early the following day.
More details of MAB’s soon-to-be delivered A350s can be seen on our previous story here.
