Royal Brunei to axe PER/BNE/AKL/SGN/KCH

[Saab34]

Didn't see this one coming...At least they are keeping Melbourne, for now at least.

RBA to quit Brisbane, Perth and Auckland

Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) has announced services to Auckland, Brisbane, Perth and Ho Chi Minh City all will be suspended after the last scheduled flights of October 2011. Flights to Kuching will be suspended after the last scheduled flight of July 2011.
A spokesperson for the airline said the decision to cancel services was part of a major "restructure".
No announcement was made on the future of affected staff, but it is understood they will be offered redundancy packages or alternative employment within the airline.
In a prepared statement, RBA said the company was moving forward with a comprehensive and sustainable plan to improve its operations, financial performance and customer service experience.
"It was not an easy decision to reduce RBA's route network. However, it is the first step towards creating a stronger foundation that will allow the airline to enhance our value to customers, employees, and society," said airline deputy chairman Dermot Mannion.
Passengers who have purchased tickets for travel on suspended flights are asked to contact the travel agent where they purchased their tickets or their nearest RBA ticketing office.

 

[haydensydney]

I'm not mourning this loss I assure you - I will never step foot on a dry airline

 

[Mal]

I'm not mourning this loss I assure you - I will never step foot on a dry airline

That was my thought too. lol.

Actually, with their constant sales ex-AU, I always wondered how they made any money ... obviously the answer is "they didn't".

 

[Princess Fiona]

I'm not mourning this loss I assure you - I will never step foot on a dry airline

Me neither
Seems there's a few little Irishmen downsizing airlines

 

[haydensydney]

Actually, with their constant sales ex-AU, I always wondered how they made any money ... obviously the answer is "they didn't".

lol - the whole dry airline thing isn't aligned with aussie and kiwi drinking culture, it's a wonder they lasted this long

 

[NYCguy]

I'm not mourning this loss I assure you - I will never step foot on a dry airline

Some of us never take alcohol in airport lounges or inflight, although we are well-aware that we are considered freaks by the majority on this board .

 

[Joshua]

I guess that means LAN wins the worst departure time out of AKL prize by default now. Maybe the 2am departures didn't help BI, but still a place I'd like to visit. There's enough time and places in life to drink.

 

[docjames]

Weird they would keep going until October. Surely they'd drop sooner, unless bookings are decent until October, in which case, why would they be dropping these routes?I wonder if there's more to this than purely loadings? Have they got lease aircraft going back to lessor? They were upgrading to 777 from 767, perhaps there's been a snag with the fleet renewal. Local (not Australian) politics also seems to impact this airline at times.

 

[anat0l]

I don't believe they really had to worry about making a dime on any of those flights, what with all that oil they are sitting on.

 

[rechoboam]

Just what I was thinking - if you run a country massively rich from fossil fuels, it's always going to be hard improving your GDP much via the airline industry of all things.

 

[JohnK]

That is a shame. I was thinking of using them from BNE for a trip early next year.

 

[browski]

For us consumers, this is not a good result.
More choice = better prices for us.

I was always surprised that Royal Brunei never jumped into an alliance. If they were a Qantas, or ANZ partner, their loads would be increase significantly.

They are a CX Asia Miles partner and IMO they are geographically not suited to have an Asia partner, they need through traffic from DownUnder.

 

[anat0l]

For us consumers, this is not a good result.
More choice = better prices for us.

For some reason this never seemed to work well. BI would always have rock-bottom prices, but the price points for each of the other mainline carriers would mostly stay the same.

The only differences have been LCCs and MH with their super Asia sale this year. None of this I would attribute to the existence of BI, and if the latter disappears I don't think the prices will differ appreciably if at all.