Malaysia Airlines to run six flights per week between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur

Malaysian Airlines (MAS) continues to ramp up the frequency of its Australian services with the introduction of near-daily direct flights between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur.

The new service comes into effect on March 27th 2011, and will see a Boeing 777-200 (with 35 business class seats and 245 in economy) departing Adelaide every day except Wednesday, with returns from Kuala Lumpur daily except for Tuesday.

MAS is splitting the ex-Adelaide departures so that Monday, Thursday and Saturday's MH138 flight will leave at 3pm and arrive into KL at 9pm; while on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday the MH136 will depart at 9am for a 3pm touchdown in KL.

The choice of arrival times in Kuala Lumpur will provide more flexibility for passengers travelling to Malaysian capital for business and those making onwards MAS connections to other parts of Asia, Europe and the UK.

The MH139 from Kuala Lumpur to Adelaide will have a fixed departure time of 9.50pm for arrival in Adelaide at 6.15am the following day.

Earlier this month MAS doubled the daily direct service between Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, converting the overnight MH0140 service which previously went via Brisbane into a direct flight with a 9.55pm departure to arrive in Kuala Lumpur at 3.20am the following day. This is in addition to the current 3pm/8.50pm MH0122 flight.

Malaysia Airlines is also readying for the introduction of its first Airbus A380 in April 2012. The superjumbo's configuration will be eight first-class seats, 54 business-class, 420 seats for economy and 26 in a new premium economy cabin – the first premium economy service offered by MAS and only the second on any A380 (after Qantas). MAS has a total of six A380s on order but has yet to reveal which routes they'll ply.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.