Royal Brunei Purchasing 777's

[Shrubbery]

RBA Poised To Buy New Boeing 777LR

By Nurkhayrul Salam

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) has announced that it will be purchasing brand new Boeing 777LR aircraft in addition to the two Boeing 777s that it has leased.

This was disclosed to The Brunei Times during RBA's open house function for its staff and corporate clients yesterday by a senior official of the company-The Brunei Times first broke the story on July 1, regarding RBA's latest acquisition, which was awaiting delivery at Dallas, Texas.

A press release from RBA later confirmed this acquisition which stated that the plane was "due to arrive sometime in the third quarter of this year".

Yesterday, the senior official, who declined to be named, confirmed that two aircraft will be leased by RBA and that "both aircraft are scheduled to arrive in the sultanate within a few weeks".

"The aircraft, one still in the United States and the other in Singapore, are currently undergoing the final preparation," he went on to say.

The arrival of the new planes, he added, will enable RBA to gradually phase out its current fleet of Boeing 767 aircraft.

"Our arrangement with the leasor is that we will only release the 767 planes once the 777s have arrived," he added.

The senior official also said that due to unforeseen circumstances, preparations for the planes have taken longer than anticipated and there was a delay in the arrival of the new planes.

He was referring to the refurbishment of the cabin interior to match the airlines corporate colours.

"Even so, the new planes will bring significant improvements in route frequency and connections on existing routes," he added, but "no new route destinations have been planned yet".

Maintaining that they have sufficient crew to take on the responsibility of the new planes, the senior official said, "everyone relevant to the 777 have been trained months before, we have a good number of pilots trained comprehensively in Singapore and the United Kingdom," he confirmed.

Meanwhile, technicians and cabin crew have also been trained to handle these new aircraft and are fully ready to take on their new responsibilities, he said.

Declining to comment on the recent technical problem faced by outbound RBA flight BI098 from Heathrow, London, and the senior officer said that RBA does not take light of any safety issues.

He said: "RBA has an impeccable safety and maintenance record in this region. One testament to this is that even other airlines such as Virginia Airways and Royal Nepal Airlines send their planes to RBA for maintenance."

Furthermore, the senior officer also revealed that by 2009, RBA will also be acquiring the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

All the new aircrafts will offer a higher passenger and cargo load capacity and will be used for long haul routes to Europe and Australia.

"The aim of the new aircraft is to put RBA on the same league and on par with other carriers who are competiting for the same route destinations," he pointed out.

When asked about their agreement with BIBD regarding a loan of $490 million, the senior official responded that the loan will be used to purchase another aircraft, a Boeing 777-LR for longer range flight.

"But, that is a long way to go; we have no solid plan regarding this matter as everything is still on the drawing board."

-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

[stevenjm]

I've often used Royal Brunei and they are actually one of my favourite airlines for service, comfort and price.

[Shrubbery]

I would agree with you about price.

Service has improved. But I believe it's due to the intake of new cabin crew.

In flight entertainment is average, that is if you are fortunate enought to get a seat where the IFE is working.

Comfort is not too bad. Though seat maintenance does not appear to be too much of a concern.

I have lost count of the times where I have had a faulty seat.

[stats]

Too RBA flight from Brunei to Singapore many times during my stay there . Few months ago on their marketing campaign they are targeting the Thai Market having advertised on all BTS trains in Bangkok .