AirBorneo (MY, Kuching) plans to more than double its narrowbody fleet from two to five aircraft by the end of 2026, chief executive Megat Ardian Aminuddin told Channel NewsAsia. He said the additional aircraft are due in October, November, and December.
Megat did not disclose the specific aircraft types the Sarawak-owned carrier intends to add or the destinations it plans to serve. However, he said it intends to expand beyond Borneo into Peninsular Malaysia, followed by other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) markets, and eventually southern China.
The airline is also considering increasing its recently launched Kuching-Singapore Changi service to as many as 3x daily, to facilitate business travel. It currently operates daily flights from Kuching to both Singapore and Kuala Lumpur International.
AirBorneo began jet operations from Kuching on July 20, 2026, initially serving Kuala Lumpur, before adding Singapore. As ch-aviation previously reported, it is wet leasing two B737-800s from Batik Air Malaysia, 9M-LCV (msn 41607) and 9M-LCZ (msn 41812).
At a media roundtable in early July, Megat said the carrier would expand from two wet-leased B737-800s to five jets by the end of 2027. He also outlined plans to transition the five aircraft to dry leases from 2028 and expand the fleet to 17 by the end of 2030.
AirBorneo inherited eight ATR72-500s and six DHC-6-400s when it assumed the operations of MASwings on January 1, 2026. It has separately ordered five ATR72-600s and three ATR42-600s for delivery between 2027 and 2029 to renew its rural air services fleet.
