RBA Plans To Expand Fleet
By M K Anwar & Azaraimy HH

Bandar Seri Begawan - The nation's flagship carrier, Royal Brunei Airlines, is planning to expand its fleet and is set to order several new and bigger planes to service its growing trunk routes and to slowly phase out its ageing B767s.

Rozman Hj Junaidi, RBAActing Head of Corporate Communication, disclosed this to the Bulletin y terday during a Hari Raya gathering organised by RBA at the RBRC Sports Complex.

Rozman did not provide details to the type of aircraft that is being considered but said it will have to be bigger planes in terms of capacity than the ones RBA currently flies.

"We will acquire bigger aircrafts. Bigger than our current ones," he said.
"We know our market, we know how many passengers we pick up, we have done some surveys and we know the demographics. Everything shows that we need larger capacity aircrafts," said Hj Rozman. Of the aircrafts built by the two major manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, the 777 and the A360 have the criteria that match RBA's requirement.

Rozman said a final decision on which aircraft RBA will acquire will be revealed early next year. The expansion programme, he said, is a lengthy process that might take RBA some time to come up with the right decision. "By December we will have an idea of what we want," he said.

Explaining more about the expansion programme, the, RBA Acting Head of Corporate Communication said the initial stage will see RBA slowly replacing its ageing B767 aircrafts. Currently RBA has six of them.

Asked more about the intended acquirement, Hj Rozman said RBA would be leasing the aircrafts.

He said several airlines wound up after the September 11 attack and many brand new aircrafts from these bankrupt airlines have been offered for lease. One of the reasons RBA is looking at bigger planes is because of its growing market on their trunk routes to Europe-and Australia.

"Demand has grown and we have to find ways to accommodate the growth," he added. Asked about new destinations, Hj Rozman said at the moment they is no word yet on any new destination and there are evaluating their options.

Challenging market conditions compounded by high fuel costs and competition from low cost carriers have made RBA to consider other options carefully.

Touching on the recent master plan to expand the Brunei International Airport, he said undoubtedly RBA will be the main benefactor of the progress.

-On the recent arrival of a low cost carrier into the country, he said so far RBA has not seen any major impact. RBA's Brunei-KL sector still remains the same with the load factor at a healthy level, he added.

Hj Rozman said they actually foresaw a new segment of passengers flying with AirAsia and this new segment was described as being created by AirAsia. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

Click Here To Have Your Say On This Story

Brudirect.com News

Brunei's Fastest Growing Website with