Malaysia assigns A380s to London

KUALA LUMPUR, 9 October 2012: Following the delivery of two A380s, later this month, Malaysia Airlines will deploy the double decker aircraft on all 14 weekly flights to London, effective 24 November.

The aircraft will replace Boeing 747s increasing the weekly seat capacity by 16%, from 5971 to 6916 in each direction.

Malaysia Airlines started its A380 flights on the London route last July, with three weekly services out of 14 and in August it deployed the A380s on seven flights..

Next year, from 1 March, the carrier will also commence a daily A380 operation on the Kuala Lumpur-Paris  route replacing the current B777 daily service.

The carrier cancelled an earlier plan to operate A380 aircraft to Sydney and Melbourne set for November and March shifting its priority to Europe. But that is a gamble, too, due to economic troubles in Europe. Aviation forecasts suggest Europe will have the lowest growth rate and it may not be enough to sustain capacity increases of the A380s.

MH’s A380 have 494 seats, comprising of eight fully-flat first-class seats and 350 economy on the lower deck and 66 fully-flat business-class and 70 economy seats on the upper deck.

Sourced: ttrweekly