Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur International) intends to announce its selection for the replacement of its fleet of six A330-200s and fifteen A330-300s by mid-July 2022, Chief Executive Izham Ismail told Reuters during the 2022 IATA AGM in Doha.
"We are in a late stage of the process. We are looking at one-to-one replacement on our A330 fleet," he said, without disclosing any further details concerning the potential type or whether the aircraft would be ordered from the manufacturer(s) or lessors.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows Malaysia Airlines operates six A330-200s, which are 14.7 years old on average, and fifteen -300s, which are 10.1 years old on average. The carrier owns nine of the -300s and leases the remainder, the ch-aviation fleets ownership module shows. The airline's widebody fleet also comprises six A350-900s. Malaysia Airlines owns six A380-800s, which it has retired from revenue service and has been trying to sell for nearly a year.
Malaysia Airlines had a non-binding order for eight B787-9s but it lapsed in 2018.
The state-owned carrier, which underwent deep restructuring during the COVID-19 pandemic and was unprofitable before the pandemic, hopes to return to profit in 2023. Besides significant pent-up demand - "revenge travel", as Izham called it - fleet modernisation has played a significant part in the turnaround. The carrier placed an order for twenty-five B737-8s in February 2022.
Besides the widebodies, Malaysia Airlines also operates forty-four B737-800s. Its subsidiary Firefly (FY, Penang) operates twelve ATR72-500s and three B737-800s, while MASwings (MY, Kota Kinabalu) - a regional specialist operating mostly PSO routes - has a further ten ATR72-500s and six DHC-6-400s.
