Why Doesn't Qantas fly to Kuala Lumpur?

[Lucass]

Bit of a random question... but why don't Qantas fly to Malaysia/Kuala Lumpur, I thought they would ad least have a service from sydney/melbourne, is there a particular reason for this?

 

[SYD]

They used to up until 1999 but apparently pulled out due to poor loads.

Presumably they would have operated several flights if the proposed QF/MH partnership went ahead but QF ditched that idea in favour of EK.

Slightly embarrassing because QF had already started the sponsorship of MH into OW.

 

[AIRwin]

They used to up until 1999 but apparently pulled out due to poor loads.

Poor loads and/or yields?

 

[SYD]

Poor loads and/or yields?

I read “loads” somewhere but JB says “not economically viable” - which would be a range of loads, yields, freight etc.

https://www.travelweekly-asia.com/Travel-News/Qantas-has-no-plans-to-resume-flights-to-Kuala-Lumpur

 

[AIRwin]

I remember QF also operated fifth freedom between KUL and SIN

 

[Quickstatus]

In order to be successful into KUL you need a LCC paying Malaysian/indonesian wages.

 

[elanshin]

Also as strange as it is SIN has also now been established as a OW hub now despite MH bring the OW carrier.

A lot more OW connections from SIN than KUL.

 

[jase05]

MH are going to 3x daily’s into MEL and SYD so they obviously believe the demand is there but as mentioned above, to make it work they would be relying on Malaysian wages.

 

[Quickstatus]

Also as strange as it is SIN has also now been established as a OW hub

Makes sense to me as SIN is a massive trading and financial hub. Singapore = Business.

 

[RSD]

MH are going to 3x daily’s into MEL and SYD so they obviously believe the demand is there but as mentioned above, to make it work they would be relying on Malaysian wages.

Back in about 2005 I flew KUL-MEL on a MH 747-400 - with a grand total of 8 passengers.

 

[moa999]

Definitely SIN has much higher business travel versus KUL.. and competing against D7 (AirAsiaX), MH (Malaysian) and OD (Batik Malaysia/ Malindo) has been difficult.

That said recently I've noticed TR (Scoot) has been very cheap for some routes

 

[Archipelago]

I remember QF also operated fifth freedom between KUL and SIN

Crikey, how long ago was that?!

 

[milehighclub]

JQ previously did SYD/KUL starting in September 2009