Royal Brunei Airlines Delays/ Cancellations

[Melburnian1]

BI must be the smallest operator into and out of Oz offering flights to London - in its case, via BWN and DXB. It also carries quite a few passengers connecting to MNL as its fares are some of the lowest.

A few years ago, BI had a far more extensive network into and out of Oz but today only flies to and from MEL, ironically the last Australian route it introduced.

On Sunday 1 November, BI54 from MEL to BWN has been cancelled.

Given that this airline has one flight a day, what would it do with booked passengers? Rebook them onto other carriers with spare seats (problematic at holiday times, but not as much of a problem presumably today.) Or make them wait until it had spare seats on one of its flights?

 

[Melburnian1]

BI53 from BWN to MEL is not often late but the arrival on Monday 7 December 2015 is, with it now expected at the gate at 0930 instead of the usual AEDT 0600. B788 V8-DLC is operating the flight.

 

[Melburnian1]

BI53 took off at 1622 ex MEL on 11 December so is about two and three quarter hours late, being normally due at BWN at 1720 hours. B788 V8_DLC is the aircraft.

 

[Melburnian1]

The 2000 hours BI53 from BWN to MEL on Sunday 27 December did not take off until 0045 on Monday 28 and hence will not be in MEL until about 1015 this morning, four and a quarter hours late, but still (normally) in plenty of time to form the early afternoon departure back to BWN. Aircraft is B788 V8-DLD. With such a small long haul fleet, BI is suspectible to late running although its performance on its sole route to Oz does not seem too bad punctuality wise.

 

[peanutz]

I'm so surprised to see so few messages here. I recently travel MEL-BKK-MEL with BI and experienced one of the worst delays in my life. The flight out of Melbourne on 14 Jan 2016 delayed for 2-3 hours due to documentation issues. Luckily our connecting flight to BKK is also with BI so they made the plane waited for us.
On the way back from Thailand on 5 Feb 2016, the flight was delayed again for 2-3 hours. I had no idea what the issues were as I were nodding off again and again and every time I woke up I found the plane was still on the ground. I was supposed to transit in Brunei for 3 hours and so thought how luckily I didn't have to spend so much time there. Wrong, our plane from Brunei had issues with lavatories so we had to hop off and wait for another hour or so to get on board another plane.

 

[Melburnian1]

peanutz, thank you.

I have not lately noticed a lot of unpunctuality with this small airline's MEL - BWN - MEL flights (one daily each way) but with its extremely small fleet, particularly just four B787s, it needs all of these to be operating as three are required for the daily BWN - DXB - LHR and return run and one for the Melbourne flights.

I am unsure what the airline does when one of its B787s requires scheduled maintenance or sudden repairs.

The flight records show that some such as its BWN - MNL flights can be delayed on the way back to BWN due to airport congestion in MNL, so it is interesting that you experienced problems at BKK.

If anyone was in a hurry to get to a destination, it would be difficult to recommend this airline as a small fleet can mean cancellations or significant delays. Some airlines with larger fleets may - and I stress 'may': it won't be the case on every occasion - have a spare aircraft that they can rustle up or alternatively an aircraft that can swap onto the otherwise delayed flight to minimise inconvenience to travellers.

There is nothing that I can see on the Internet to suggest that BI has become profitable despite the very low oil price now applying. However it may keep its results close to its corporate chest. Its yields ex Oz (MEL only) must be very low because it often sells return fares to BKK, HKG and MNL for between A$606 and A$660. While this will not be every seat it is difficult for it to charge as much as the likes of TG, CX and PR on each of those routes, or QF on all three, because of BI's very limited frequencies and lack of nonstop flights to those destinations.

 

[peanutz]

Thank you Melburnian1. It's good to know that my experience was quite unusual. I'm trying my luck again in June so let's hope I don't have to post any delays here

 

[Melburnian1]

The BI53 from BWN due to arrive in MEL at 0600 hours on Monday 21 March has been cancelled, as has BI54 back to BWN in the early afternoon.

This airline only has a fleet of four long haul planes, three of which are required for BWN - DXB - LHR and return and one for BWN - MEL so if one plane is unavailable, something has to suffer.

 

[Pathfinder1]

The BI53 from BWN due to arrive in MEL at 0600 hours on Monday 21 March has been cancelled, as has BI54 back to BWN in the early afternoon.

This airline only has a fleet of four long haul planes, three of which are required for BWN - DXB - LHR and return and one for BWN - MEL so if one plane is unavailable, something has to suffer.

Oh no, so if the flight were cancelled, what happened to the pax out of Melbourne? Did they get accomodated in Mel or rebooked on other airlines?

 

[Melburnian1]

Because it was close to Easter, Pathfinder 1, one might expect BI to be close to full both ways. It may not have had many spare seats the next day: its aircraft are not the highest capacity long haul planes in any case.

In further support of this is how its fares are close to the cheapest into and out of MEL, so while it is a low profile airline with a limited frequency - daily as opposed to say CX, EK, EY, SQ and so on that have multiple departures for LHR via their home airports - BI will attract attention from 'bottom end' passengers. I do not use the latter term to criticise: many of us may at times in our lives have extremely finite material resources and hence for a trip (say the sudden passing of a much loved relative or friend) be looking for 'best value' which sometimes will mean 'cheapest.'

Your post shows why these threads would further benefit from travellers who can be in a great position with events like cancellations to let us all know how the passengers were treated - delay in being attended to by staff if any, taxi vouchers, which hotel, whether a full meal package was included and so on.

Given that BI has such a limited long haul, normally fully committed fleet travelling with it has a degree of risk so one might hesitate to recommend it for time poor travellers.

 

[Melburnian1]

Evidenced by rare appearances in these pages, BI's sole Australian flight (which is daily), BI54, the 1215 hours (at this time of year) MEL - BWN is rarely late but Friday 17 June was an exception with it in the sky at 1245 and arrival expected half an hour behind at 1750.

V8-DLD is the B788.

However BI has only four of these with three required for its daily BWN - DXB - LHR and return flights, and one for BWN - MEL and return, so if maintenance or repairs are required, a flight ex MEL may be cancelled. This thankfully does not often occur.

 

[Melburnian1]

Probably due to a headwind, BI54 on Saturday 18 June (once again, V8-DLD) took off punctually ay 1223 from MEL (1215 being the pushback time) but is not forecast to arrive in BWN until about 1823 hours, 63 minutes late.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Sunday 26 June, BI54, the 1215 MEL - BWN took off punctually at 1236 but should arrive at about 1757, 37 minutes late, presumably due to a headwind. V8-DLC is the B788.

 

[peanutz]

Happy to report back that all my BI flights in June departed right on-time!
01 June BI54 MEL-BWN
01 June BI519 BWN-BKK
13 June BI514 BKK-BWN
13 June BI53 BWN-BKK

Having said that, my friend's trip on 3 July, BI54 delayed by 15 minutes.

 

[Melburnian1]

BI53, the redeye from BWN to MEL is usually punctual but that is not the case on Monday 25 July when the arriving B788, V8-DLA, is delayed until about 1021 compared with the usual at gate MEL time of 0500 hours. Unless maintenance is required, BI54 should still be on time departing from MEL early this afternoon for the run back to BWN.

 

[Melburnian1]

On Saturday 20 August, BI54 (1215 MEL - BWN) took off at 1224 (which if anything is early) but is not forecast to arrive until about 1757 hours, 37 minutes behind time. Aircraft is B788 V8-DLB.

 

[Melburnian1]

BI53, the 2000 hours Wednesday 19 October from tiny BWN to MEL departed at 2239. On Thursday 20 it should arrive at 0833, 153 minutes behind schedule, but in plenty of time to form its return today BI54 to BWN. Aircraft is V8-DLB.

 

[Melburnian1]

It appears that on Monday 1 December, B!53 from BWN to MEL did not operate. BI only has four B788s and normally requires three for its dailies from BWN to LHR via DXB and return, and one for BWN - MEL and return.

On Tuesday 2, BI53D - 'D' presumably for 'delayed' - took off with V8-DLB at 1008; MEL arrival is forecast for after 1900 tonight. The returning BI54 is estimated to depart MEL at 2030 instead of its usual at this time of year 1315 hours.

The latter probably means a missed connection to DXB or LHR and hence an unplanned night in BWN (not the most interesting of places when I briefly had a look around its capital) at BI's expense.

This is one of the downsides of choosing such a small airline to travel between MEL and BWN, DXB, HKG, LHR, MNL or SIN to name a few. Its fares may be often cheap, but if there is any problem with one of the B788s or one is required for scheduled maintenance, the flight schedules - and passengers - tend to suffer. Also worth bearing in mind is that while it is a full service airline, it refuses to carry alcohol in its galley (although one can BYO on board - essentially meaning purchasing from expensive airport retailers in MEL due to the 100ml/ one lire individual/ total LAGs requirement through security, the only exception being miniatures of spirits that one could purchase at Dan Murphy's or BWS and legally take through security.

UPDATE: The evening BI53 from BWN to MEL (B788 V8-DLB) that was meant to depart tonight (Friday 2 December) has been cancelled.

The delayed BI54 on Friday 2 took off from MEL at 2114, with BWN arrival expected at 0132 hours on Saturday 3 December instead of 1720 on Friday 2 December.

 

[Melburnian1]

The overnight BI53 from BWN down to MEL (B766 V8-DLA) took off at 0126 on Friday 30 December despite a timetabled departure of 2000 hours on Thursday 29. On Friday 30, it should arrive at around 1113, 313 minutes tardy compared with its scheduled 0600 hours at gate time.

 

[Melburnian1]

In one of the previous couple of days, BI did not operate to and from MEL, presumably because one of its four longhaul Dreamliners was inoperable.

On Tuesday 3 January, problems are continuing with BI53, the 2000 hours Monday 2 January 2017 BWN to MEL having taken off at 0128 hours on Tuesday 3, meaning likely arrival in MEL at 1112, five hours and 12 minutes late. This should however not delay (if all goes well) the returning BI54 from MEL as that is a scheduled 1325 hours departure. V8-DLD is the B788.

Because BI only has four Dreamliners with one required for MEL and three for the BWN - DXB - LHR rotations, it may be inadvisable to use this airline if passengers are on a tight deadline.