Malaysia Airlines announces new direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Paris 

Malaysia Airlines is poised to make a return to Paris, nearly ten years after the airline last operated scheduled services to the French capital city. The new flights are due to operate daily between the two cities and will be flown by the carrier’s Airbus A350 aircraft. 

The new service is due to commence on March 22, 2025, with the 6,492-mile (10,387km) route taking around 14 hours to complete. Tickets for the new route are due to go on sale on September 6, 2024. For the first week of operation, the flights will leave Kuala Lumpur on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays until March 29, 2025, when a daily service will commence.  

Westbound services will leave Kuala Lumpur (KUL) at 23:45 as MH41 and land at Paris Charles De Gaulle (CDG) at 06:40 the following day. The return flight (MH20) will depart Paris at 11:25 arriving back in the Malaysian capital at around 07:00 the following morning. 

GCmap.com“We have been evaluating European destinations for the past few years,” said Izham Ismail, CEO of the Malaysia Aviation Group at an event launching the new route. Paris has previously been a strong performer, and we feel very strongly that Paris is best for our growth plan.” 

“While the European market is highly competitive, we see tremendous potential for this route to attract key travelers, not just from Malaysia but also from neighboring regions,” he added. 

The move to add flights between Malaysia and a second European capital comes as the carrier continues its recovery from several years of hardship. The airline continues to serve London-Heathrow Airport with a twice-daily service from KL using its fleet of Airbus A350-900s of which it currently operates seven aircraft.  

These aircraft are configured to carry 286 passengers in a four-class configuration – four in first class, 35 in business class, 27 in economy plus, and 220 in economy class. 

viper-zero / ShutterstockHowever, the carrier is due to upgrade its business class offering and remove the first class from these aircraft as the new cabins are fitted to the aircraft. A retrofitting program is due to commence in the early part of 2026 which will include the same business class suites with privacy doors that are being fitted to the company’s new A330neos that are coming into service later in 2024.  

As things currently stand, the Malaysian carrier will enjoy a monopoly position on direct Kuala Lumpur to Paris flights as Air France does not currently serve the route. Malaysia Airlines states that the majority of traffic between the two cities currently routes via the Middle East (Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha) or via Singapore with Singapore Airlines. 

There is further speculation that Malaysia Airlines is considering further European services as new aircraft arrive in the fleet, with Milan, Madrid, and Amsterdam being possible contenders. However, CEO Ismail has previously confirmed that while such destinations remain under evaluation, no decision on any new European route is imminent at this time. 

In the meantime, the carrier is currently awaiting delivery of the first of its first A330-900neo widebodies and has a further nine on order. The delivery of additional A330neos means that the new Paris operation can quickly increase to daily once the new flights commence in March 2025, with the new A330neos freeing up aircraft currently used on the carrier’s services to Doha in Qatar. 

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ColumnistsbyKoen KarsbergenSeptember 6, 2024

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