Malaysia Airlines fleet

Overview

As of March 2017, the Malaysia Airlines fleet (excluding their cargo aircraft) consists of the following aircraft:

Airbus A330-300

Malaysia Airlines currently operates one variant of the Airbus A330, the Airbus A330-300, with a total of 15 in the fleet. This aircraft is used to fly medium-to-long-haul routes, such as Tokyo, Osaka, Delhi, Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Beijing, Shanghai and many more cities.

Malaysia Airlines previously operated 13 'older generation' A330s, all wearing the old livery, receiving its first in 1995. All of them have since been phased out of the fleet and are now replaced by the 15 aforementioned newer versions which are painted in the new livery and are also equipped with enhanced in-flight features, as part of the airline's fleet renewal programme. The first of these new A330s arrived in 2011.

Two Airbus A330s (9M-MTE and 9M-MTO) are currently painted in Oneworld livery. New Business Class seats will be fitted starting from April 2016 and is expected to be completed by September 2016. The aircraft are respectively fitted at starting of 2017.

Airbus A330-900neo

Malaysia Airlines have options to lease two Airbus A330-900neo. They will be used for medium haul flights, complementing the existing A330-300s in the fleet.

Airbus A350-900

Malaysia Airlines will lease 6 Airbus A350-900 starting 2017. Malaysia Airlines will be the first A350-900 operator to offer First Class aboard six aircraft expected from December 2017. They will be configured to accommodate 4 seats in First Class, 35 seats in Business Class, 27 seats in Premium Economy Class and 220 seats in Economy Class (286 seats in total). Two A350-900s are expected to integrate its fleet by the end of 2017. [1]

Airbus A380-800

Malaysia Airlines signed a contract with Airbus to purchase 6 Airbus A380s in 2003. The airline expected to receive its first Airbus A380 in 2007, but delivery was delayed due to manufacturing problems. On 3 October 2006, upon completion of a review of the A380 program, the deliveries were pushed approximately two years back to 2009.

Malaysia Airlines and Airbus agreed on compensation and a new schedule for the deliveries on 31 March 2008, considering the new overall plans of the airline, with the deliveries to be made in 2011. However, Airbus postponed the delivery of the first A380 for the second time.

The first A380 was delivered in June 2012 and features all-new livery to highlight the airline's 'wau' kite design element. The first A380 commercial flight commenced on 1 July 2012 flying from Kuala Lumpur to London, with Kuala Lumpur - Sydney flights following on 25 September 2012. The airline completed deliveries of all six A380s in March 2013 with the youngest of these, registered 9M-MNF, being the 100th A380 ever produced worldwide.

The A380 has 8 seats in first class at the front of the lower deck, 66 business class seats on the upper deck and a total of 420 economy seats across both decks, with 350 on the lower deck and 70 upstairs. Children under 12 will not be allowed to travel in the upper deck economy cabin. Malaysia Airlines originally wanted to introduce Premium Economy class into the A380, but ended up with more Economy Class seats as a result.

On 30 April 2015, it was announced that Malaysia Airlines would seek to sell or lease out all six of its Airbus A380s due to its ongoing financial crisis. But Malaysia Airlines new CEO Christoph Mueller announces that it's too early to sell out the fleets. In May 2015, Mueller announced that Malaysia Airlines would continue to use four A380 aircraft on its London route (MH 1-4), with the remaining aircraft being use for chartered flights to Madinah.

In August 2016, Peter Bellew, the new CEO of MAB announced that one A380 was retrofitted with new economy plus seating, but ticketing will only begin when all A380s have been retrofitted. MAB's Economy plus is essentially the same seat as the existing economy, albeit with more legroom (38" vs 32"). Catering and services remain the same as economy. Economy plus will also be fitted on board the yet-to-be-delivered A350-900s.

Boeing 737-800

Malaysia Airlines' Boeing 737-800 aircraft fly to regional South-East Asia and domestic destinations. The 737-800 order was announced at the Farnborough Air Show on 16 July 2008. In February 2009, Malaysia Airlines already received two leased 737-800s, and another one in March.

Malaysia Airlines took delivery of its first Boeing 737-800 on 1 November 2010. New Malaysia Airlines Boeing 737-800 aircraft will be painted in new Malaysia Airlines livery and will be equipped with Boeing Sky Interior and new blue seats for Golden Club Class and red seats for Economy class.

Aircraft registered 9M-MX* and some of 9M-MS* are owned by MAS plus equipped with PTV in every seat, while 9M-ML* and 9M-FF* are leased from lessor. 9M-MLM, 9M-MLP and 9M-MLV are equipped with PTV in every seat. Malaysia Airlines have announced that they will be reducing the amount of 737's to 45 by 2016 as the 11 737 without sky interior are to be retired.

Boeing 737 MAX

On 27 July 2016, Malaysia Airlines has announced the purchase of 25 Boeing 737 MAX jets, consisting of 25 firm orders and 25 option for both MAX 8 and MAX 9 models. The order, priced around 5.5 billion dollars, is expected to commence on 2019, replacing some of the B737-800 currently in service.

Historical fleet

List of aircraft that Malaysia Airlines and its predecessor companies have flown in the past.