Royal Brunei Airlines' New Website

[JuliusWong 0]

After MH, this time round is RBA's turn to unveil its new website. Weblink: http://www.bruneiair2.com/

 

The new website looks much appealing than the current one. And very EK's-ish. Rather than pulling MH's fiasco, RBA allows its user to switch between the current and the newest one at their convenience.

 

Comments are most welcome.

[Cire 0]

Being the richest country in this region, Royal Brunei Air does not have much destinations on its fly charts. I was told by a very reliable source that the airlines have since revamped its Mgmt.and are now getting much modernized aircrafts into its fleet. And negotiations are in order to have more landing rights throughout the world.

 

Being some of the richest citizens there, they usually spends much of their holidays in western countries.

 

According to its current website's information, it only has in its fleet the B777,AB319, and AB320; 10 aircrafts in total !

 

Perhaps the folks there are too rich to bother to make a living from running an airline.. Or perhaps they are so rich that they have their own private jets to shuttle them in this region, and then hop on to the more established airlines here for long haul flights.

[zeqa 1]

Also the population of Brunei is small & barely have enough tourist to visit Brunei. The airline is just enough to cater for the locals. You can see why the airport is stuck to the 70s style terminal with a few modification to it.

 

The only profitable RBA route is Australian uses RBA to London!

Edited February 8, 2011 by zeqa

[JuliusWong 0]

Being the richest country in this region, Royal Brunei Air does not have much destinations on its fly charts. I was told by a very reliable source that the airlines have since revamped its Mgmt.and are now getting much modernized aircrafts into its fleet. And negotiations are in order to have more landing rights throughout the world.

 

Being some of the richest citizens there, they usually spends much of their holidays in western countries.

 

According to its current website's information, it only has in its fleet the B777,AB319, and AB320; 10 aircrafts in total !

 

Perhaps the folks there are too rich to bother to make a living from running an airline.. Or perhaps they are so rich that they have their own private jets to shuttle them in this region, and then hop on to the more established airlines here for long haul flights.

 

Hahas, Cire!! Lolx!! But not quite, if everyone is to buy private jet, Brunei airport will be chocked!

 

To be honest, RBA is run more like a metro system, not-for-profit, rather for shuttling the local. It has been said that RBA has not made any profit since its inception in 1975. Well, am not sure about that, cause no profit/loss statement was ever made public.

 

The previous management has been removed totally and they brought in Mr. Robert Yang, who was previously with SQ for North America Country Manager. With him, came the new management board. Under them, RBA underwent changes, new B777s, optimisation of aircraft usage, better connectivity etc. The B772ER has its own history after numerous debacles. But it doesn't stop problems from cropping up.

 

Royal Brunei Airlines has always been my interest since my first trip on airplane were with them back in 1998. At that time they had eight B763, two B752s, two F-50s and F-100s. Way too many aircraft for a tiny airline with low pax. RBA made a big mistake in buying those B763ER when it was cheaper to lease. Written such a big cheque but could manage to recover the cost over the many years. Six B763ER with PW and two with GE....how screwed up can the Operation side be?

 

The current ten aircraft are just nice for RBA's route system. A319 and A320 are used heavily on regional route; B777 on Australasian and UK market. B777 supplement some regional flight sometime. i.e. BWN-BKI....a flight last less than 20 mins..

 

If you look back its history many routes had been dropped. Beijing and Osaka went offline in 1998 because most of both flights had less than 10 pax!!

 

They finally can make some sense that they just don't have enough passengers to be a big player like MH, SQ what more of being EK. So rather than bleeding more money, and Sultan was pissed.....they just fly to those destinations that most Bruneians would want to go. London is an exception as Brunei has a lot of government and hundreds of students overseas. Not to forget the close friendship between Brunei and UK Royal families.

 

Then you have the DCA problem. Tiger has approached to fly to Brunei since 2006, but till now no flight to be seen. Cebu Pacific is given right to fly, but they arrive and depart in unGodly hour: 1:45am in the morning, when Brunei itself is practically dead by 10pm. AK dropped KK route as it was pulling some RBA customer away, SQ and PR ended codeshare after much bickering. RBA is left behind alone facing onslaugther by its neighbour's sister.

 

Staffs left RBA like revolving door, and everytime I take RBA they will always have new set of crews, all not familiar. Hmm, I am pretty sure RBA is here to stay as the Government wouldn't let it crumble. That would be really embarrassing. Till then we just sit back and see how it progress.

 

Also the population of Brunei is small & barely have enough tourist to visit Brunei. The airline is just enough to cater for the locals. You can see why the airport is stuck to the 70s style terminal with a few modification to it.

 

The only profitable RBA route is Australian uses RBA to London!

 

Actually the terminal is just nice, don't need to walk far far away, unlike Changi or KLIA....hahas!! but seriously eight gates for a country's only international airport is kinda not 'presentable'. You know what I mean.

 

I doubt so the only profitable RBA route is Australian uses RBA to London, as they are just scrapping the "bottom of the oil drum". They put their price so low that its unimaginable. Plane maybe full, but all sold at cheap fare is not sustainable in long run. The only one I can think is profitable is SIN, JKT and MNL. The latter two migrant workers, SIN...almost everyone for shopping.

[Cire 0]

hm...thanks for sharing the "insider" story.

 

 

 

I think it is partly because Brunei itself lacked tourism attractions that could lure folks around the region to visit it or make a stop-over.

 

Perhaps the Brunei government should find and develop its tourism potentials as well. Then would it only bring more passengers to its airlines.

I read some where that the aqua-culture industry over there is quite huge. Prawn rearing was one of them that charted huge exports for this royal country.

Perhaps it could be made a tourism attraction as well. I am sure Mr.Robert Yang have plenty of ideas how to develop this, based on his vast business experience and a well traveled person himself.

[JuliusWong 0]

hm...thanks for sharing the "insider" story.

 

I think it is partly because Brunei itself lacked tourism attractions that could lure folks around the region to visit it or make a stop-over.

 

Perhaps the Brunei government should find and develop its tourism potentials as well. Then would it only bring more passengers to its airlines.

I read some where that the aqua-culture industry over there is quite huge. Prawn rearing was one of them that charted huge exports for this royal country.

Perhaps it could be made a tourism attraction as well. I am sure Mr.Robert Yang have plenty of ideas how to develop this, based on his vast business experience and a well traveled person himself.

 

Agree. Compared to its neighbouring countries, Brunei Tourism is relatively small. Apart from the pristine virgin rainforest there is not much else to market. Food has been taken by Malaysia, Shopping by Thailand and Singapore, Historical sites by Cambodia and Indonesia etc, Brunei is really lack of major selling point. Even if they do have, other countries offer better value package tour to tourists. Aquaculture looks promising, really hope they develop it well. Relying solely on oil is not sustainable for the future.

 

Mr Robert Yang and his team seems to know what is best for RBA. All new routes are now set at 7-hours radius from Brunei. Melbourne is coming online, Tokyo and Seoul are on the card. Some good history. http://www.anna.aero/2010/03/16/royal-brunei-airlines-to-re-launch-shanghai-flights/

 

Cheers!

[Cire 0]

Ya...they seems to be on the right track. Like many businesses over there, it was done in a lack-lustre way. Not to forget, many and including the airline itself which also belonged to the royal family. It seems that RA have since changed its Mgmt. a couple of times before. One involving a mat-salleh before Mr.Robert Yang. Perhaps it proofs that it takes an Asian to know how to run an Asian business, haha..

 

I personally have not been to Brunei, but soon perhaps to make a visit there. And of course on board a RBA.

[Riza 0]

Theme is primarily a magnet to make a country as a passenger's stopover city en route to destination. Lesser in that, one thing that might be tempting is for RBA to offer an attractive fare to OZ/NZ only after re-organizing its schedule so pax doesn't have to overnight at BWN.

[Walter Sim 1]

Just did a mock booking, KUL-BWN-MEL return is just a whopping 2010RM after tax! That's really really cheap

[JuliusWong 0]

Ya...they seems to be on the right track. Like many businesses over there, it was done in a lack-lustre way. Not to forget, many and including the airline itself which also belonged to the royal family. It seems that RA have since changed its Mgmt. a couple of times before. One involving a mat-salleh before Mr.Robert Yang. Perhaps it proofs that it takes an Asian to know how to run an Asian business, haha..

 

I personally have not been to Brunei, but soon perhaps to make a visit there. And of course on board a RBA.

 

Yea, the life in Brunei is very laid-back. Everything moves very....very slowly. lolx! Actually the mat salleh or Mr Peter Foster was the one who brought RBA to an all time high during his tenure. Under him, PTV, Airbuses and frequent flyers program were introduced. Unprofitable routes were dropped and optimised to suit Kangaroo route. RBA even scored four stars ranking under him. Mr Yang banked on these in further improving the connection. Mr Foster's grand plan however hit stumbling block and was ousted from the board soon afterwards. He is now with Air Astana and you can see how well Air Astana is doing now under him.

 

Theme is primarily a magnet to make a country as a passenger's stopover city en route to destination. Lesser in that, one thing that might be tempting is for RBA to offer an attractive fare to OZ/NZ only after re-organizing its schedule so pax doesn't have to overnight at BWN.

 

 

Just did a mock booking, KUL-BWN-MEL return is just a whopping 2010RM after tax! That's really really cheap

 

Yeap, I sat with a couple from KL last week doing KUL-BWN. Asking them why they take BI to NZ instead of direct MH flight. Answer: BI fares are too cheap!! KUL flight arrives at 8:10pm at BWN; flight to NZ leaves at 10pm. Connecting flight at work.

 

Like what I've said before, they are picking the 'leftover' pax who doesn't want to pay premium price for like QF, SQ, MH or EK. if they can improve onboard services, I don't see why they can't be a strong competitor.

[BC Tam 2]

And us Sabahans here too are extremely appreciative of the very reasonable offerings by BI

[Cire 0]

I guess the main direction now for RBA is to service the Aussie/NZ routes. It was at one point of time that the plane were old and rickety..*ahem..according to some ex-passengers. Old and tired planes were continued to be serviced and put back to the air, resulting in poor cabin comfort and high maintenance cost to the airline. Releasing the old aircrafts and getting new ones proofs a good move.

And now since the pieces to transform the airline are already in place, it is time perhaps to start marketing itself to its people, Asia, and then the world.

 

It should market its airline with catchy motto like " Even the King fly Royal Brunei Air" ® / "Now you can fly like a Royalty.." *ahem..

It has to project itself away from the many Asian hospitality genre to a more Royal like services to reflect the airline's Royal title etc.

[Kenneth Chong WT 0]

And us Sabahans here too are extremely appreciative of the very reasonable offerings by BI

 

Truth can't be said about Sarawakians....hmph! More Sarawakians should be informed about BI! SO more people will fly to BWN and onwards to different destinations. 2X weekly is just too little!

[BC Tam 2]

2X weekly is just too little!

True, makes you wonder why they even bother !

Can't see that much traffic KCH/BWN vv if not for transit to other places (same goes for BKI/BWN I guess) so 2x weekly is not going to make it work really

Look at frequencies for KCH/SIN - perhaps it's because Kuching people are more prepared to pay for premium travel via connectivities at SIN ?

[JuliusWong 0]

And us Sabahans here too are extremely appreciative of the very reasonable offerings by BI

 

Truth can't be said about Sarawakians....hmph! More Sarawakians should be informed about BI! SO more people will fly to BWN and onwards to different destinations. 2X weekly is just too little!

 

Hahas!! BC Tam is correct. BI is not earning much for KCH flight which explains why it was suspended last time and not being upgraded to B777 on weekends now. KK gets upgraded almost every weekend and KK gets daily flight somemore. Flight to KCH sometimes run almost empty. O.O

 

I think most probably the reason is KCH is too near to SIN to be competitive. Too many airlines had pulled out of KCH. MH is also no longer flying to BWN from KCH or BKI, leaving BI virtually monopolising both routes. BI should deploy something smaller like Embraer or Fokker again if they really want to target Sarawak for connecting pax. Remember BI used to fly MYY and BTU twice daily. Those were the time.....

[Riza 0]

If they can coordinate it right, they can have the BKI/BWN catchment + KUL catchment & connecting ex-LHR-DXB pax to OZ/NZ. But with no STPC for the long layover, well, kinda hard for KUL pax.

[BC Tam 2]

Just did a mock booking, KUL-BWN-MEL return is just a whopping 2010RM after tax! That's really really cheap

Add on rm827 and one can do BKI-BWN-LHR to and fro

Incredible !