Malaysia Airlines New 2-Class A330 – Routes & New Business Class

Malaysia Airlines A330 New Business Class Cabin

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Malaysia Airlines hasn’t had the happiest of times in the past few years and now finds itself having to reinvent what sort of carrier it’s going to be if it is to survive. The airline’s CEO, Christoph Mueller, is the industry’s go-to man when it comes to troubled airlines (he oversaw an impressive turn-around of Aer Lingus) and he’s been slowly putting through the changes he believes are necessary to see Malaysia Airlines emerge as a viable carrier.

Last year, as part of the reorganisation of the trouble airline, 20,000 jobs were cut, a number of the airline’s Airbus A380 aircraft were put up for sale or lease and routes were cut across the board.

But it wasn’t all about cuts. cuts and more cuts and now we’re starting to see some of Christoph Mueller’s other ideas for the airline coming to fruition.

Malaysia Airlines has been busy retrofitting its Airbus A330 aircraft with a new Business Class cabin in an attempt to reboot the airline’s fortunes with premium cabin travelers.

Malaysia Airlines A330 New Business Class Cabin

The new cabin is set to feature the Thompson Vantage seat…..

seat-heroMalaysia Airlines A330 New Business Class Cabin

…..but the seat is anything but new – SWISS have been flying this seat in their Airbus A330 for nearly 9 years. Still, an airline in as much trouble as Malaysia Airlines was unlikely to go out and order a bespoke (and therefore very expensive) seat.

While the seat is a definite improvement on the angled-flat seats that Malaysia Airlines has previously offered in its A330 aircraft, it’s still not exactly ground breaking….and it still doesn’t offer aisle-access to all passengers in the new Business Class cabin.

The Business Class cabin layout for the A330 is anything but straightforward as ExpertFlyer shows….

Screen Shot 2016-02-21 at 20.03.27….but what the ExpertFlyer seat map doesn’t show is how the seats are also staggered from row to row:

malaysia-airlines-staggered-seatingMalaysia Airlines A330 New Business Class Cabin

Passengers in 2K, 5K and 7K will have to step over the person in the next seat if they wish to get to the aisle (which probably makes these seats the least desirable in the cabin….especially for solo travelers) and, as you can see from the picture below….

56c2da6c02c0425ba6d578ac767f2254-malaysia-airlines-new-business-class-seat-airbus-a330-1000cMalaysia Airlines A330 New Business Class Cabin

…some seats are more exposed to the aisle than others.

These mock-up pictures from Thompson show the issue more clearly:

mal-seat3

While the single seats on the left of the aircraft (when facing forward) are best for solo travelers, seats 2A, 5A & 7A are more private (for some reason there isn’t a row 3).

On the other side of the aircraft (the right side when facing forward) things are different again.

mal-seat1

The presence of two seats in rows 2, 5 & 7 means that seats 1K, 4K and 6K are “Throne Seats”:

mal-seat2

Don’t those look great for solo travelers?! 🙂

Clearly these are the seats to select if you’re flying on your own (or even if you’d just prefer not to talk to whomever you’re flying with!) while the two seats in the centre section are the best for couples who actually get along (both have direct aisle access).

Malaysia Airlines A330 Routes With New Business Class

So, which routes will be the first to feature the New Malaysia Airlines A330 Business Class cabin?

According to Airlineroute.net The Kuala Lumpur – Sydney route will be the first to see the new Business Class cabin (from 23 March) with the Melbourne route following in April.

Full roll-out is as follows:

Kuala Lumpur – Sydney

  • From 23 March flights MH141/140
  • From 6 April MH123/122

Kuala Lumpur – Melbourne

  • From 18 April MH129/128
  • From 30 April MH149/148

Kuala Lumpur – Auckland

  • From 21 May MH131/130
  • From 7 June MH133/132

Kuala Lumpur – Tokyo (Narita)

  • From 27 May MH070/071
  • From 18 June MH088/089

Kuala Lumpur – Osaka (Kansai)

  • From 2 July

Kuala Lumpur – Beijing

  • From 3 August

Kuala Lumpur – Shanghai Pu Dong

  • From 3 August

Kuala Lumpur – Adelaide

  • From 20 August

Kuala Lumpur – Delhi

  • From 10 September

Kuala Lumpur – Perth

  • From 10 September

Kuala Lumpur – Seoul Incheon

  • From 1 October

Kuala Lumpur – Jeddah

  • From 15 October

All dates are subject to change so don’t go booking non-refundable tickets thinking that you’re 100% certain to get the new cabin – you’re not.

Bottom Line

I confess to having a bit of a soft-spot for Malaysia Airlines. I think they’ve had an incredible amount of bad luck in a very short period of time (and, unusually for a corporation, not all self-inflicted) so I hope this is the start of better things for them.

I don’t see the new Malaysia Airlines A330 Business Class cabin as being ground breaking or even in line with the latest Business Class cabins but it could be the start of better things for the airline and it’s a huge improvement on what they’ve been offering on the A330’s up until now. Would it make me fly with Malaysia Airlines over other airlines in the region? No. But it does mean that I won’t be actively avoiding their A330’s any more.

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