SINGAPORE, 10 May 2022: Royal Brunei Airlines has resumed flights to neighbouring Sarawak and Sabah, two of Malaysia’s top heritage and nature destinations that share Borneo island with Brunei and Indonesia.
The airline relaunched the 40-minute flights to Kota Kinabalu, the state capital of Sabah, from its home base in Brunei Darussalam after Malaysia was added to its green list countries for non-essential travel last week. Services will initially operate twice weekly on Friday and Sunday.
The airline’s acting CEO Sabirin Abdul Hamid, said in a media statement: “RB is finally reopening flights to Kota Kinabalu. As one of our top pre-pandemic destinations.”
“This is part of our restart plans as governments from around our network gradually ease travel restrictions. Over time we will increase our flight frequencies and reintroduce more of our destinations back to guests.
Assistant Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah cum Chairman of Sabah Tourism Board Datuk Joniston Bangkuai; Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment of Sabah Datuk Sr Haji Mohd Yusrie Abdullah and Sabah Tourism Board CEO Noredah Othman welcomed passengers arriving on the inaugural flight.
“We are pleased to welcome the return of this flight. The connectivity from Brunei will definitely help with transiting international passengers, especially from routes that were previously in service from Australia, the UK, the Middle East and Japan. We hope that eventually, the Brunei-Kota Kinabalu-Tawau flight may also be reinstated,” said Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.
Meanwhile, a week earlier, Royal Brunei Airlines resumed flights from Bandar Seri Begawan to Kuching starting 1 May with two flights weekly scheduled on Thursday and Saturday.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the airline offered daily flights to Kuching the state capital of Sarawak.
“This initiative is the beginning of stronger relations between Negara Brunei Darussalam and Sarawak, thus boosting air connectivity for a great business (partnership), investment and tourism activities,” said Minister for Transport Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin in a media statement at the time of the relaunch.
(Source: Sabah and Sarawak’s tourism boards)
