Royal Brunei is the flag carrier of Brunei, which is a country located on the island of Borneo in South East Asia. It is reported they are thinking about joining the oneworld alliance as a oneworld Connect member.
Operating regional services with the Airbus A320 and Airbus A320neo, and long haul services with the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, this small airline is what the oneworld Connect membership is designed for.
About Royal Brunei
Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital city of Brunei and home base for the airline. In the region, the airline serves Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.
Further afield sees flights to Dubai and Jeddah, as well as places like Brisbane and Melbourne in Australia and London Heathrow in the United Kingdom. People could use this airline as a different way to get from the UK to Australia, and some do.
Dermot Mannion, previous CEO of Aer Lingus, was the CEO of Royal Brunei from 2011 to 2016 and has since been replaced by Karam Chand. An interesting link between Ireland and Brunei that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.
Overall Thoughts
Fiji Airways joined oneworld Connect, and they have a similar fleet size to Royal Brunei. As this membership is designed for smaller niche carriers, it seems appropriate for the Asian airline.
That being said, in light of the Sharia law reforms proposed by the Sultan of Brunei, which would permit the stoning and whipping to death of LGBT+ people for example, perhaps they wouldn’t be a good fit for the alliance.
What do you think of this possible move by Royal Brunei? Have you flown on this airline before? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by A. Doumenjou / master films via Airbus.
Route map via Royal Brunei.
The changing laws showing a massive increase in intolerance in Brunei would make me avoid the country and the airline under pretty much any circumstance. I think that the alliances should have a basic set of standards, among which would be to accept LGBT people as they are rather than kill them. This very minimal standard would seem to be the lowest hanging fruit.
Yes, I agree with you there! Thanks for the comment!
If they are accepted into the One World Alliance, it will tarnish the names of airlines like American, British, and JAL to name a few. The constant criminalization, and death sentence of LGBTQ+ people in Brunei is unacceptable. If allowed to join it will look like other airlines are approving of the new laws.
I agree with you. It’s all over the press today what is happening in Brunei so it will be interesting to see if they stick with it. Thanks for the comment!
Keep politics away from aviation. The aviation industry should also ban this pride nonsense as well. Why do they force this rainbow thing into my face? It offends me as any other symbol in politics and history. Its not my fault that some people have a mental issues. An airline is offering you transportation and politics like the pride and lgbtq has nothing lost here!
I’m sure banning Pride in the aviation industry wouldn’t be very good, since a lot of people working in the industry identify as LGBT+. You are, of course, entitled to your opinions, wrong as I think they may be. Thanks for the comment!