Malaysia Airlines launches new business class to Melbourne

Malaysia Airlines is set to launch all-new international business class suites with privacy doors, and they’ll make their world debut on flights to Melbourne.

Delivering more personal space and fitted with mod cons such as massive personal video screens and concealed wireless charging pads for smartphones and earbuds, the suites will crown Malaysia Airlines’ latest Airbus A330neo jets – an updated version of the A330 which it already flies to most Australian cities.

Malaysia Airlines' new A330neo and A350 business class suite.

The A330neo embraces not only more fuel-efficient engines but presents a fresh take on the cabin interior which reduces inflight noise, adds ambient LED lighting schemes and upsizes the overhead luggage bins to increase capacity by some 66%.

Malaysia Airlines has confirmed the first A330neo route will be between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, beginning in November.

Malaysia Airlines' new A330neo and A350 business class suite.

Its schedule now shows the A330neo first appearing as flight MH149 on Monday November 25 (departing KL at 10.30pm to reach Melbourne at 9.25am), with the return leg MH148 on Tuesday November 26.

That timetable could change, of course, but for now, everything appears on track for the A330neo fleet, with 20 factory-fresh jets arriving across 2024-2026 to steadily replace the workhorse A330s which dominate routes across Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East.

The high-privacy pew will also find its way onto the KL carrier’s long-range Airbus A350 fleet from early 2026, a retrofit project that will also spell the end for the A350’s four first class suites, since rebranded as Business Suites.

While a confident and comfortable step up from Malaysia Airline’s current A330 and A350 business class, the new suites will at the same time be quite familiar to many globetrotters.

Malaysia Airlines' current A330 and A350 business class.

That’s because they are built around Collins Aerospace’s Elevation platform, which is also used by British Airways for its Club Suite business class and Etihad Airways’ A350 Business Studio suite. 

Etihad Airways' A350 Business Studio suites.

Happily, one thing that’s not changing is Malaysia Airlines’ amazing business class satay.

As previously reported, Qantas has also name-checked Malaysia as a potential destination for its international A321XLR jets.

The airline is keen to forge new direct routes between Australia and Asia using the extended-range single-aisle jets, which make it economically feasible to add flights when the numbers don’t stack up for larger twin-aisle jets.

“Internationally the XLRs will be able to enter markets we haven’t been able to commercially operate,” Qantas Group CEO Vanessa Hudson has told Executive Traveller, citing potential overseas XLR routes such as Adelaide-Singapore, Canberra- Singapore” as well as flights from Darwin and Perth, and “up into India (and) Malaysia.”