Royal Brunei Airlines Part 2: long haul growth may resume with London nonstop, Brisbane relaunch

Royal Brunei could upgrade its daily London Heathrow service to nonstop following the delivery of a fifth 787-8 and the completion of a runway surface improvement project at Bandar Seri Begawan. The expansion of the 787 fleet in mid-2018 provides an opportunity for Royal Brunei to resume long haul growth, following a major network restructuring and reduction in the widebody fleet in the early part of this decade.

Dropping the Dubai stop on the Bandar Seri Begawan-London route would significantly improve Royal Brunei's product in the Melbourne-London market and other smaller sixth freedom markets, such as Kota Kinabalu-London. However, Royal Brunei would need to increase its reliance on sixth freedom traffic in the highly competitive Asia-Dubai market in order to support a Dubai turnaround service.

Royal Brunei is also considering the resumption of expansion in Australia as it evaluates potential opportunities made possible by the upcoming expansion of its overall fleet from 10 aircraft (six narrowbody and four widebody) to 15 aircraft (10 narrowbody and five widebody). Using the new A320neo fleet to relaunch flights to Brisbane, which was served with 777s until 2011, is under consideration.