(Malay: Penerbangan DiRaja Brunei, Jawi: ﻓﻧﺭﺑﺎڠن ﺩﻴﺮﺍﺝ ﺑﺮﻮﻧﻲ), or RBA as it is known by its initials in Brunei, is the international
Airline of the Sultanate of
Brunei . It is wholly owned by the Government of
Brunei and is the flag carrier for the Sultanate of Brunei Darussalam. Its home base is the
Brunei International Airport in Berakas, just to the north of the
Capital City of Brunei,
Bandar Seri Begawan . Its
IATA code is BI.
Royal Brunei Airlines was established on
18 November 1974 with two
Boeing 737 's, one of which was put in service for the airline's first flight on
14 April 1975 from the brand new
Brunei International Airport to
Singapore . Flights to the then
British colony of
Hong Kong and the towns of
Kota Kinabalu and
Kuching in
East Malaysia /
Malaysian Borneo also commenced the same day. Early route expansion included services to
Manila ,
Philippines in
1976 , and
Bangkok ,
Thailand in
1977 .
Royal Brunei acquired a third Boeing 737 in
1980 , allowing the airline to reach
Kuala Lumpur ,
Malaysia in
1981 and
Darwin ,
Australia in
1983 .
After independence from the
United Kingdom on
1 January 1984 , services commenced to
Jakarta ,
Indonesia on the 3rd of January, thus linking all the other five capital cities of
ASEAN to Brunei.
Three
Boeing 757 aircraft were purchased in the mid eighties to enable the airline to expand to
Taipei in
1986 , and
Dubai ,
United Arab Emirates in
1988 . In
1990 , Royal Brunei opened their first flight to
Europe when they started services to
Frankfurt ,
Germany , via Bangkok and Dubai. The ultimate goal was to serve
London and services to
London Gatwick Airport commenced in 1990 via Singapore and Dubai. Services were changed to
London Heathrow Airport in
1991 . 1991 also saw the opening of a route to
Perth, Western Australia and to
Jeddah ,
Saudi Arabia via Dubai.
The airline's rapid expansion made it a necessity to sell the 737s and buy
Boeing 767 aircraft. The first delivery of the Boeing 767 for Royal Brunei broke a world record when it flew 17 hours and 55 minutes non stop from the
Boeing company in
Seattle to
Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in
Nairobi ,
Kenya , on its way to
Brunei . Seven more 767s were delivered, taking the fleet to eight 767's and two Boeing 757's (One of the 757's were sold off to fund the purchase of the new 767's).
In March
1993 ,
Abu Dhabi was added to the route network and flights to Frankfurt and Jeddah were routed through Abu Dhabi instead of Dubai.
Bali was the second Indonesian city to be added to the network in May of the same year. Flights to the third destination in Europe,
Zürich commenced in August 1993 via Kuala Lumpur and another new destination
Bahrain . This was the fist time RBA has added two cities simultaneously to its network. Before the end of the year, services to
Beijing ,
China (October) and
Cairo ,
Egypt (November) via Kuala Lumpur and Bahrain, were inaugrated. Royal Brunei sold its last
Boeing 737-200 s to
Aloha Airlines of
Hawaii in
1993 .
The growth of the network continued in
1994 . The delivery of two
Fokker 50 aircraft were used to start services to
Miri and
Labuan in East Malaysia of the same year. Flights to
Brisbane , Australia and
Osaka ,
Japan commenced the same year in June and December respectively. The service to Brisbane was initially routed via Darwin but was changed to a direct flight before the year was out. The desire to link all the major
Oil And Gas cities on
Borneo saw the addition of
Balikpapan to the route network in December.
In
1995 services began to
Kolkata , (
Calcutta ),
India via Singapore and then on towards Dubai. Dornier 228s were introduced to the fleet network in the same year and services to
Mulu commenced. The service to Cairo was quietly suspended in the middle 1995 due to low passenger traffic.
The F-50s were replaced by the larger and more comfortable F-100 jets in
1996 which fueled expansion to
Bintulu . The route to Zurich was suspended in September 1996 to enable Royal Brunei to commence daily services to London Heathrow. Some of the flights to London were routed through
Yangon ,
Myanmar instead of Singapore. Yangon proved to be not economically viable and was dropped from the route the next year.
In
August 1997 , Royal Brunei’s safety record suffered a blow when a Dornier 228 operating in Royal Brunei colours, carrying 19 passengers to Miri, crashed into a mountain. All 19 passengers and two crew perished. The reason for this crash is still unclear. The Dornier 228s were subsequently sold off in 1997 and short haul services to Miri, Labuan, Mulu and Bintulu were teminated.
Surabaya was the fourth Indonesian destination to be added to the network later that year.
Unprofitable routes to Beijing and Osaka were suspended in 1998 and the F-100s were also sold off to
Alpi Eagles Airlines in 1998.
Kuwait was added to the network in
2000 and was served via Singapore, Kolkata and Dubai. It was suspended a year later. Services also began to
Pu Dong International Airport ,
Shanghai in
2001 . Royal Brunei started online booking facilities the same year.
After years of unprofitable operation, Royal Brunei began major restructuring in year
2003 . The 2003 Strategic plan was for Royal Brunei’s fleet to grow from 9 aircraft in 2003 to 24 aircraft by the year 2013. The fleet of 8
Boeing 767 and one B757 will be changed to 15 new narrow-bodied aircraft and 8 wide-bodied aircraft. The plan calls for half of the new aircraft to be leased and the others to be purchased.
• The plan also included new services to Tokyo,Los Angeles,Seoul and to increase its frequencies on other flights..
For
2004 to
2008 , Royal Brunei will invest $400 million to buy narrow-bodied aircraft. For the year 2008 to 2013, Royal Brunei will invest $800 million to buy wide-bodied aircraft to replace the current fleet of B767-300 aircraft and also further increase the number of narrow-bodied aircraft. Possible new wide-bodied aircraft include the
Airbus A330, A340 or the
Boeing B777.
In 2003 the deliveries of the new
Airbus A319 and
A320 marked the start of Royal Brunei’s re-equipping exercise. Two A319s were delivered on August 28 and September 3. A320s were added
December 9 and
January 3 ,
2005 . All of the Airbus were leased from CIT Aerospace of USA in a seven year contract. The Airbuses fly mainly on regional routes. With the introduction of new aircraft, the
Boeing 757 has been phased out and sold to other parties.
In May 2003 Royal Skies, the airlines’ frequent flyer programme, was launched.
In October 2003, a new “food fit to fly by” concept was introduced in Royal Brunei’s in-flight menus. Featuring healthier and lighter meat options, it was designed by Chef Michel Roux Jr. of the London's Le Gavroche restaurant.
On 31st Oct
2003 , Royal Brunei’s jet touched down at
Auckland International Airport making it the first destination in New Zealand and the first new destination added to the network as part of the restructing exercise.
By end of the year 2003, Royal Brunei entered a controversial agreement with
Royal Tongan Airlines of
Tonga . Under the agreement, Royal Tongan Airlines was to wet-lease one of the two remaining B757s of Royal Brunei. In return, Royal Brunei was given the opportunities to open its market to the US. The deal did not happen because Royal Tongan Airlines went into bankruptcy with huge debt in mid 2004, after less than 6 months of operation. As Royal Tongan Airlines was unable to pay the fees, the B757 was repossesed and stored in Auckland International Airport.
The last B757 was retired from the Royal Brunei fleet in early 2005.
In
January 2004 , the airline launched Bluesky Fares, a low cost internet booking facility, offering cheaper economy class fares to selected destinations, to compete with low cost carriers in the region, such as
AirAsia .
Starting in March 2004, 4 of Royal Brunei’s Boeing 767 aircraft were modified by the introduction of SkyDreamer seats in Business Class to replace the old First Class and Business Class Skyluxe seats. Business Class was renamed as Sky Executive Class and in Economy class each seat was installed with an 8.4 inch TV.
The unprofitable
Taipei route was suspended in late
2004 . Kuching and Kolkata were dropped on
31 Oct 2004 due to the rising oil prices, but at the same time,
Sydney was added to the route network. Commencing in November, flights to Jeddah were routed through
Sharjah instead Abu Dhabi.
In early 2005, the airline spun off its engineering department as a separate entity, known as Royal Brunei Engineering, offering airframe maintenance, technical and material support services. Its base maintenance facilities in Brunei specialises in B757 and B767 heavy maintenance and is gearing up to provide similar services to the A320 family of aircraft.
Royal Brunei added Ho Chi Minh city to its network list in May 2006, flying there 3 times every week. They are also planning to fly to Tokyo hopefully in 2006.
After the fourth quarter of 2005, Royal Brunei announced un-officially that Royal Brunei made their first profit after operating in debt for five years. This marked the success of their re-structuring exercise.
The airlines has a code share agreement with
Singapore Airlines ,
Malaysia Airlines ,
Bmi ,
Virgin Atlantic ,
United Airlines and
Dragon Air of
Hong Kong .
As Brunei is an
Islam ic society, where the sale of alcohol is forbidden, Royal Brunei does not serve alcohol on board its flights, and all meals served are
Halal .
All of Royal Brunei flights are non-smoking flights.
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The Royal Brunei Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft (at October 2005):
