Royal Brunei is the flag carrier of Brunei, which is a country located on the island of Borneo in South East Asia. It is reported they are thinking about joining the oneworld alliance as a oneworld Connect member.

Operating regional services with the Airbus A320 and Airbus A320neo, and long haul services with the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, this small airline is what the oneworld Connect membership is designed for.

About Royal Brunei

Bandar Seri Begawan is the capital city of Brunei and home base for the airline. In the region, the airline serves Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.

Further afield sees flights to Dubai and Jeddah, as well as places like Brisbane and Melbourne in Australia and London Heathrow in the United Kingdom. People could use this airline as a different way to get from the UK to Australia, and some do.


Alcohol is banned in Brunei, which is a majority Muslim country operating under Sharia law. This means that no alcoholic beverages are served on board Royal Brunei flights. However, it is permitted to bring your own on board for personal consumption.

Dermot Mannion, previous CEO of Aer Lingus, was the CEO of Royal Brunei from 2011 to 2016 and has since been replaced by Karam Chand. An interesting link between Ireland and Brunei that you wouldn’t necessarily expect.

Overall Thoughts

Fiji Airways joined oneworld Connect, and they have a similar fleet size to Royal Brunei. As this membership is designed for smaller niche carriers, it seems appropriate for the Asian airline.

That being said, in light of the Sharia law reforms proposed by the Sultan of Brunei, which would permit the stoning and whipping to death of LGBT+ people for example, perhaps they wouldn’t be a good fit for the alliance.

What do you think of this possible move by Royal Brunei? Have you flown on this airline before? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by A. Doumenjou / master films via Airbus.
Route map via Royal Brunei.