Malaysia Airlines fleet

Malaysia Airlines has leased six Airbus A330-200s,[14] used for several high-demand medium haul routes. The aircraft are secondhand and have kept the configuration of their previous operator (Air Berlin), this being 16 Business Class seats and 271 Economy Class seats.[14] The airline previously operated five 'older generation' A330-200s between 2003 and 2013.

Malaysia Airlines' Airbus A330-300 fleet is used to fly medium-to-long-haul routes. They are painted in the new livery and are also equipped with enhanced in-flight features, as part of the airline's fleet renewal programme. The first of these new A330s arrived in 2011.[15]

Malaysia Airlines previously operated 13 'older generation' A330-300s, receiving its first in 1995. All of them have since been phased out of the fleet.

Malaysia Airlines began taking delivery of six Airbus A350-900 aircraft in 2017 to replace the ageing Boeing 777-200ER fleet and was the first A350-900 operator to offer First Class.[1] They are configured to accommodate 4 seats in First Class, 35 seats in Business Class and 247 seats in Economy Class (286 seats in total) after MAB CEO, Peter Bellew said premium economy seats "would erode our business product and revenues".[16][1][17][18] On 12 December 2018, First Class was rebranded as Business Suite Class.[19]

Malaysia Airlines signed a contract with Airbus to purchase six Airbus A380s in 2003 to replace the aging Boeing 747-400 fleet, which has been operated since 1990. The airline expected to receive its first Airbus A380 in 2007, but delivery was delayed due to manufacturing problems.[20][21] On 3 October 2006, upon completion of a review of the A380 program, the deliveries were pushed approximately two years back to 2009.[21][22]

Malaysia Airlines and Airbus agreed on compensation and a new schedule for the deliveries on 31 March 2008, considering new overall plans of the airline, with the deliveries to be made in 2011.[23][24][25] However, Airbus postponed the delivery of the first A380 for the second time.

The first A380 was delivered in May 2012.[26] and featured an all-new livery to highlight the airline's 'wau' kite design element.[27] The first A380 commercial flight commenced on 1 July 2012 flying from Kuala Lumpur to London, with Kuala Lumpur - Sydney flights following on 25 September 2012.[28] The airline completed deliveries of all six A380s in March 2013, with the last being the 100th A380 produced.[29]

The A380 has 8 seats in first class at the front of the lower deck, 66 business class seats on the upper deck and a total of 420 economy seats across both decks, with 350 on the lower deck and 70 upstairs.[30] Children under 12 are not allowed to travel in the upper deck economy cabin.[31] Malaysia Airlines originally wanted to introduce Premium Economy class into the A380, but more Economy Class seats were fitted instead.

On 30 April 2015, it was announced that Malaysia Airlines would seek to sell or lease out all six of its Airbus A380s due to its ongoing financial crisis.[32][33] It has since decided to keep the A380s in service.

On 12 December 2018, First Class was rebranded as Business Suite Class.[19]

The first order for the 737-800 was first announced at the Farnborough Air Show on 16 July 2008. In February 2009, Malaysia Airlines received two leased 737-800s in advance of its aircraft. Boeing 737-800s currently account for the majority of aircraft under Malaysia Airlines and are primarily assigned to flights to regional Southeast Asian and domestic destinations.

On 27 July 2016, Malaysia Airlines announced the purchase of 25 Boeing 737 MAX jets, consisting of 25 firm orders and 25 options for both MAX 8 and MAX 10 models. Deliveries of the aircraft on order, priced around 5.5 billion dollars, was expected to commence in 2019 to replace some of the Boeing 737-800s.[34] However, the grounding of the aircraft by aviation authorities around the world following two deadly crashes in less than 5 months led to the halting of all new deliveries.