Malaysia Airlines is today celebrating the first anniversary of its Airbus A380 operation between London Heathrow and Kuala Lumpur.

Since adding the superjumbo to its fleet on July 2nd last year, Malaysia’s national carrier has experienced stronger loads and positive UK growth figures with monthly sales figures from January to June 2013 all indicating a strong increase in bookings when compared to the same period in 2012.

Commenting on the anniversary, Yuzrizal Mohd Yousuf, area manager UK & Ireland, said: “As Malaysia Airlines’ flagship route it was vital that the UK was the first to be served by our latest product.

“The enhanced comfort, technology and services of the Airbus A380 have been extremely well received by our passengers across all cabins, resulting in a successful first year of operation, which we look forward to improving on throughout 2013 and beyond.”

Since its launch on the flagship London Heathrow to KLIA route, which has been operating since 1974, Malaysia Airlines now flies six Airbus A380 aircraft from KLIA to London, Paris and Hong Kong.

With a capacity of 494 seats, Malaysia Airlines’ A380 comprises 350 economy and eight fully-flat first-class seats on the main (lower)deck, and 66 fully-flat business-class and 70 economy seats on the upper deck, providing some of the most spacious cabins in the skies.

Thai Airways

At the same time, Thai Airways has announced that, due to important technical modifications, its own A380 will not be able to commence its operation on the Heathrow- Bangkok route as planned.

Thai had planned launch the A380 from December 1st, 2013.

A new tentative operational date has been set for October 30th 2014.

When introduced, the A380, the world’s largest airline will operate the London-Bangkok day flight while the A346 will be re-introduced to the overnight flight. 

Until next winter and the introduction of the A380, Thai Airways will continue to use its B747 on the route, leading on to over 70 cities across five continents.