Malaysia Airlines Returning to Brisbane

Malaysia Airlines will return to Brisbane (BNE) in November 2025, two and a half years after suspending services. The five-times-per-week roundtrips between the Queensland capital and Kuala Lumpur (KUL) coincide with a ramp-up of flights to Sydney (SYD) and Melbourne (MEL).

A statement from Brisbane Airport says the flights will restart on November 29 and use A330-300 aircraft that seat 291 passengers, including 263 passengers in the economy cabin and 27 passengers in business class.

MH135 will depart Kuala Lumpur at 20:40 every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening and arrive in Brisbane at 06:45 the following morning. After a very short 75 minutes on the ground, MH134 will leave Brisbane at 08:00 every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning and reach Kuala Lumpur at 14:10 on the same day.

"We are delighted to welcome back Malaysia Airlines and the additional connectivity it brings to Brisbane,” said Brisbane Airport CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff. “The airline boasts a robust Southeast Asian network, strong connections into Europe, and serves 10 Indian hubs, where demand is growing.”

The flights are restarting with assistance from the Attracting Aviation Investment Fund, a jointly funded initiative between the Queensland Government and the state’s international airports.

Malaysia Airlines will be the only operator on the city pair, and Brisbane Airport says the flights will offer an additional 150,000 annual seats in and out of the airport. The airline suspended its Brisbane flights in March 2023 when an aircraft shortage saw it redeploy the operating aircraft onto higher-demand and more profitable routes. Now, Malaysia Airlines says it cannot put enough flights into the Australian market.

Coinciding with the Brisbane announcement, Malaysia Airlines confirmed that it will increase its Sydney and Melbourne services from the current double daily flights to triple daily by the end of October. Auckland (AKL) flights will increase from the present eight per week to ten.

The extra Sydney-bound flight, MH251, will depart Kuala Lumpur every evening at 20:30 and land in Sydney the following morning at 05:30. The return flight will leave Sydney at 10:25 every morning for a 16:00 arrival into Kuala Lumpur.

Shortly after the mid-evening Sydney departure, MH147 will depart Kuala Lumpur at 20:50 for the overnight flight to Melbourne, arriving there at 07:45 the following morning. That aircraft will turn around to operate MH148 back to Kuala Lumpur, leaving at 09:00 for a 14:15 arrival at Kuala Lumpur.

Notably, by the end of the year, Malaysia Airlines' brand new A330-900s will operate all three daily flights to Melbourne, while the A330-300s continue to operate most Sydney flights.

Malaysia Airlines’ Australian network also includes Adelaide and Perth. However, no additional flights were added to those cities.