KUALA LUMPUR—Malaysia Airlines will reintroduce service linking Kuala Lumpur with Paris next year, nine years after the flag carrier suspended the route in 2016.
The Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KUL)-Paris Charles de Gaulle (CDG) route will become Malaysia Airlines' second European destination after London.
Using Airbus A350-900 equipment, flight MH 20 will start from March 22, 2025, with 4X-weekly service, increasing to 7X-weekly from March 29, 2025.
Izham Ismail, managing director of Malaysia Aviation Group, said the carrier selected Paris to provide feed into “markets they are good at” and where they are looking to add frequencies—in this case, Southeast Asia and Australia.
Izham said that London and Amsterdam were limited by slot constraints and simulations for both Paris and Frankfurt showed that the French capital is best suited for Malaysia Airlines' network strategy.
Izham added that Paris would potentially complement London, taking additional feed from Eastern Europe, North Africa and even South America. However, as the market has not “settled,” there are no plans to introduce another European destination in 2025.
Malaysia Airlines will park at CDG Terminal 1, with the other Oneworld alliance members located at Terminal 2A. The carrier says this will ensure a “comfortable minimum connecting time.”
Izham said that as Oneworld does not impose restrictions on partnerships, there are also possibilities to collaborate with Air France-KLM in Paris.
The A350-900s will be removed from service linking KUL with Doha, Qatar, and Tokyo Narita—routes which will eventually be serviced by the incoming A330neos.
The airline has cut approximately 20% of its capacity to resolve reliability issues, which Izham expects to be fully resolved by the end of 2024.
The Aviation Week Network Fleet Discovery database shows Malaysia Airlines operates a fleet of five in-service A350-900s. Two more are parked.
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