Malaysia Airlines climbs to sixth spot in Australian market

By Andrew Curran.

Malaysia Airlines has become the sixth-largest international airline operating to and from Australia by passenger numbers, with Australian Government data showing a sharp increase in its market share over the past year.

The Malaysian flag carrier carried 132,501 passengers to and from Australia in June 2026, up 54.2% from 85,907 passengers in June 2025. Its share of Australia’s international passenger market consequently increased from 2.5% to 3.9%.

The latest figures from the Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics (BITRE) place Malaysia Airlines behind only Qantas Airways, Jetstar, Singapore Airlines, Air New Zealand and Cathay Pacific Airways. Qantas held the largest share at 16.7%, followed by Jetstar at 14.8%, Singapore Airlines at 9.5%, Air New Zealand at 6.0% and Cathay Pacific at 4.7%.

Malaysia Airlines up, Gulf carriers down

In January, Malaysia Airlines was the ninth-largest international airline operating to and from Australia by passenger numbers but, like several other Asian carriers, has benefited from many travellers to and from Australia avoiding the Gulf carriers since the war in Iran started. By March, Malaysia Airlines had climbed into sixth spot and it has retained that position ever since.

In contrast, in January, Emirates was the fifth-largest airline operating to and from Australia, with a 4.9% passenger market share. Qatar Airways was in 10th spot with a 2.6% market share.

The June data shows Emirates dropping to seventh spot and Qatar Airways falling out of the top 10.

Malaysia Airlines told Aero South Pacific that it had enjoyed 56% year-on-year growth on outbound flights from Australia as of September 2026, and 50% growth on inbound flights to Australia.

“This growth is primarily driven by strong demand in the premium segment, particularly across corporate, student, and premium leisure travel markets,” a spokesperson said.

New aircraft and more frequencies boost the case for flying Malaysia Airlines

Malaysia Airlines flies to five cities in Australia – Sydney (SYD), Melbourne (MEL), Brisbane (BNE), Perth (PER) and Adelaide (ADL).

Using A330-900s, it operates thrice-daily return flights between Kuala Lumpur and Sydney and between Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne. It operates daily A330-900 round-trips between Kuala Lumpur and Adelaide and six weekly return flights, rising to daily later this month, between Kuala Lumpur and Brisbane. Perth is the only Australian city that Malaysia Airlines does not exclusively serve with the A330-900, instead using a B737-8 to operate one of its two daily round-trips to the Western Australian capital.

Malaysia Airlines’ A330-900 seats 297 passengers and its MAX 8 seats 174 passengers, equating to the airline currently deploying 39,264 seats per week on the Australia – Malaysia country pair. It is the only full-service carrier flying between Australia and Malaysia and has always enjoyed a steady stream of business on the Australia – Europe routes, although in recent years it was increasingly outgunned by the Gulf operators and competitively aggressive regional rivals such as Singapore Airlines.

Now, the airline is enjoying something of a second life on its Australia routes – helped not only by passenger preferences to avoid the Gulf, but also by swapping out previous-generation A330s for the newer A330-900s and increasing frequencies.

The BITRE data, backdated to June, indicates Malaysia Airlines was filling over 90% of the seats on flights from Australia that month and just under 70% of seats on flights to Australia.

“In response to positive demand trends, we are actively expanding our flight frequencies,” the Malaysia Airlines spokesperson added. “Given the potential for further demand growth, we are exploring additional capacity increases next year.”

Malaysia Airlines eyes more flights to New Zealand

Malaysia Airlines is also looking at expanding flights to New Zealand. It presently flies ten times per week between Kuala Lumpur and Auckland (AKL), but a senior executive at parent entity Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) recently told Stuff that the airline wanted to build up to double-daily services and then look at flights to Wellington (WLG) and Christchurch (CHC), subject to aircraft availability.

“We want to focus our energy and effort into Auckland first,” said Bryan Foong, CEO of MAG’s Airline Business. “Build it up to 14 a week, twice a day, and then from there, look at the traffic and see what else we can do. We will always explore another point, but it depends on the economics, depends on demand (and) it depends on aircraft.”

Photo: Adelaide Airport.
Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com