Malaysia Airlines takes delivery of its first A380 superjumbo today, with the aircraft set to serve the Kuala Lumpur to London route three times-weekly from July 1, rising to daily from August.
MAS is the eighth carrier to get the double-decker Airbus aircraft, and has a total of six A380s on order. A second will be delivered in August, enabling the airline to move to a daily A380 service on the key London route.
As previously reported (see online news March 8) the aircraft is configured with 494 seats, with eight first class and 350 economy seats on the lower deck, and 66 fully-flat business and 70 economy seats on the upper deck.
Business class passengers on the superjumbo service will benefit from the carrier’s Chef-on-Call service – currently only available to first class passengers.
The business class seat has a pitch of 74 inches, and converts into a 72-inch fully-flat bed, with other features including a 17-inch TV, inseat laptop charging and a USB port.
First class features an 87-inch bed, with a width of 40 inches, which MAS says is the widest first class bed available in the air. More details of the seating products across economy, business and first class can be seen in the table below.
Last year the carrier controversially announced it would not allow babies in its A380 first class cabin (see online news June 29, 2011), and it is also believed infants will not be allowed in the upper deck economy section of the aircraft (see online news April 3).
The carrier has also upgraded its Golden Lounge at Heathrow T4, and has opened new facilities at Kuala Lumpur. MAS is also set to join the Oneworld alliance by the end of this year (see online news May 15).
Business Traveller will be on board the inaugural A380 service between London and Kuala Lumpur in early July, and will report on the event on this website.
For more information visit malaysiaairlines.com.
Report by Mark Caswell
