Malaysia Airlines’ double-decker Airbus A380 superjumbo will be making brief appearances on the airline’s Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney routes on select dates this year, despite the aircraft having largely been removed from regular service to instead focus on pilgrimage traffic on routes to the Middle East.

According to aviation industry website, routesonline.com, the aircraft will fly the three routes on the following dates:

Kuala Lumpur-Hong Kong:
MH072/MH073 from February 16-18, 2018

Kuala Lumpur-Sydney:
MH123/MH122 from March 30-31; April 12-14; June 21-24; June 29-30; July 15, 2018

Kuala Lumpur-Tokyo Narita:
MH088/MH089 from March 17 to April 10; August 15-25, 2018

Malaysia Airlines typically flies its A330-300 on the Hong Kong Sydney and Tokyo routes.

In a statement to Business Traveller, Malaysia Airlines notes that plans for the dedicated pilgrimage services is still set to go ahead despite the A380’s occasional deployment on other routes.

“Project Hope is still very much on track providing charters to Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah and Medina airports to cater to Hajj and Umrah pilgrimages to Mecca. However, we will be deploying the A380s opportunistically during peak periods to high-traffic markets,” said the airline.

Malaysia Airlines expects to shift its six A380s to a separate company in the third quarter of 2018 in order to serve these travellers.

malaysiaairlines.com