Royal Brunei Airlines begins direct flights to Chennai

An aviation waypost was reached in Chennai on Tuesday (November 5, 2024), with Royal Brunei Airlines beginning direct flights on the Brunei-Chennai-Brunei sector.

An aviation waypost was reached in Chennai on Tuesday (November 5, 2024), with Royal Brunei Airlines beginning direct flights on the Brunei-Chennai-Brunei sector.

Chennai will be the carrier’s sole destination in India. The airline flew to London via Kolkata and Dubai in the 1990s, but the service was suspended after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. It has operated some charter flights since then to stations such as Coimbatore.

The aircraft on the inaugural flight from Bandar Seri Begawan had a special ‘Brunei tourism’ livery, which highlights some of Brunei’s landmarks, natural splendours, and a traditional songket pattern. A large delegation from the Brunei Economic Development Board was among the passengers who arrived on Tuesday night.

An airline official said the flight, BI121/BI122, a three-day week service (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday), is to be operated with a 150-seat two-class configured Airbus A320N, and would boost business and tourism between the sultanate on the island of Borneo and southern India.

Officials from the STIC Travel Group, the airline’s India GSA, said Brunei Darussalam has an Indian diaspora largely from Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and the flag carrier was looking to tap business, labour, tourism, student, and professional traffic. Another travel segment was onward traffic to its other southeast Asian destinations and also Melbourne, Australia.

The airline has an interline agreement with Air India to connect passengers from Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi to the Chennai flight.