Could Malaysia be the next aviation mega-hub?

“People are opting out of travel to just avoid any involvement in the aviation system. For those who do have to travel, there are, of course, flights to and from the Middle East, but not with the same perceived reliability as before the conflict. So, people are turning to other avenues to try to get to their destinations, particularly in Europe, and that involves either those Qantas non-stop flights from Perth, or going up through Southeast Asia, or in some cases, even going the long way through the US.”

By contrast, that same Airservices report saw Southeast Asia growing, up 13 per cent year on year, with mainland China up 25 per cent and other Asia up 10 per cent. Though Southeast Asia is not quite as convenient as the Gulf states – which are centrally located, meaning less travel time; are likely to have smoother and more seamless connections; and are designed for international-to-international transit, meaning passengers do not have to enter the country to catch a connecting flight – the region does have its advantages, says Leib: for example, as cost bases are lower in Southeast Asia, there is the potential for cheaper airfares.

“A great advantage, depending on who the passengers are, is that a lot of people actually like to break up the trip and stop over in a place that is value-added for their experience of travel,” he says. “So, it is a common thing where people might book stopovers in a place like Singapore or like Hong Kong or Tokyo and then continue their journey. Obviously, that delays the journey, but in a way that is more desirable to the passengers.”

Untapped potential

While the major hubs like Singapore’s Changi Airport and Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) have long played an important part in connecting Australia to the world, in recent years, another contender has emerged a stone’s throw from Singapore: Kuala Lumpur. The home base for Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA, to its friends) was last year ranked equal fourth in analyst OAG’s Top 50 Global Airport Megahubs, with 36,159 connections to 151 destinations, making it the most connected airport in the Asia-Pacific, and took out the top spot globally for low-cost, with 16,502 low-cost connections.

“KLIA is well known to be a big low-cost carrier hub and an airport that is designed to support that, with a specific terminal made with the amenities that allow airlines to keep costs lower, which keeps fares lower,” says Leib. “In general, it is definitely one of the hubs of Southeast Asia, and has a big presence and many, many long-haul international flights, but it doesn’t reach the kind of broad, I guess, notoriety as a hub, as you would find in Singapore, Hong Kong, or Tokyo. You may have a big route network, but you might not have the same flight frequency through Kuala Lumpur.

“I think it’s an untapped opportunity for this kind of potential [as a major Australia-Europe hub]. The airport infrastructure is designed to set that up and support that. From a connectivity standpoint, it offers the sort of the same flight times as you would find through Singapore. It’s fairly direct along the way between Australia and Asia or Europe, and you’ve also got the low-fare carrier presence, so there’s a big opportunity there.”

Airlines are starting to sit up and take notice of these opportunities, with Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia increasing their connections from KL into Australia over the past couple of years – and it’s not just Malaysian carriers, either, as British Airways and Turkish Airlines have both chosen KL for their connections from Heathrow to Melbourne and from Istanbul to Sydney respectively. Malaysia is now Airbus’ third-largest market in the Asia-Pacific behind India and China, according to the planemaker’s president for Asia-Pacific Anand Stanley, who believes Kuala Lumpur has the potential to be a major hub for both passenger and cargo traffic alongside Singapore and Hong Kong.

“There is room for a third super connector in this region, and Malaysia, with KLIA, can play that role,” he told Malaysian news outlet Bernama. “With the right mix of infrastructure, airline strategies and modern aircraft, Malaysia can further strengthen its role in connecting the region and beyond.”

Malaysia Airlines is certainly looking to push KLIA as a new hub for Australia, with the flag carrier now operating around 70 flights per week between Australia and Kuala Lumpur. Speaking to Australian Aviation at the MATTA travel fair in KL, Bryan Foong, chief executive for airline business at the carrier’s parent company Malaysia Aviation Group, said KLIA has a major advantage over competing airports in the region, such as Changi: more headroom.

“The advantage is we have room to grow,” he said. “Infrastructure-wise, land availability-wise, KLIA has tremendous potential, and we feel that we have a role to play in that, in the next five years, to work with airports and government authorities to build KL up. We have a huge headroom in terms of where and how much we can expand, and we believe that with very smart investments, with very smart collaborations with the airports we have, we are able, then to grow the hub in KLA in comparison to Changi, in comparison to Bangkok as well.”

Dr Leib agrees, adding that another card KLIA has to play is cost: if it can offer the same services as Changi or Hong Kong but less crowded and at a lower price tag, carriers like British Airways and Turkish Airlines might consider it as an alternative, especially if they can capture a slice of the Australia-Malaysia (and/or UK–Malaysia, or Türkiye–Malaysia) markets in the process.

“I think the key advantage is KLIA can probably deliver similar services for lower cost, and that lower cost is attractive to airlines, who, in turn, are in a more competitive position to offer lower fares. So, I think that’s one key thing,” he says. “The other key thing is that Singapore has a large capacity, but that capacity is pretty well consumed. So, they would need to kind of organise a plan to grow the capacity to the point where it can replace the corridor, or at least replace some of the corridor, through the Middle East. Kuala Lumpur, I think, is in a better position to do that, because it’s just a larger airport property that has a lot more space to work with.

“Hong Kong [as well] is very space-constrained, and operates at capacity all the time – and not only does the airport have capacity limits, but also the Hong Kong airspace is pretty constrained. To the west, it’s got Macao, and then it’s got Shenzhen just a few miles away, which is growing into a mega hub as well. And then you’ve got Guangzhou, which is not far from there, and in the east, an hour and a half flight time, you’ve got Taipei. So, it’s just a crowded part of the world airspace-wise, and that limits the number of flight routes and the accessibility to the airport, which can limit capacity – and I think KL has real advantages in that area.”

Clashing with the titans

Of course, just offering lower prices and less congestion may not be quite enough to compete with the likes of Changi and HKIA on their own turf. Changi in particular has a solidly entrenched position and excellent name recognition among travellers as a world-class airport, having been named the best of the best by Skytrax in its 2026 World Airport Awards, while KLIA sat well behind in 60th place. Changi has won first place no fewer than 14 times, meaning any attempt to take its crown – or even give it a solid challenge – is going to be a tall order.

“If we look at what Singapore did, Changi Airport is well known around the world,” says Leib. “It’s marketed that way as a sort of passenger haven with great amenities – the Jewel, the shopping, it’s got really a sort of ecosystem around Changi that supports the passenger experience and, and that’s disseminated. So, I think Kuala Lumpur would have to follow that sort of framework to actually just put it on the radar of passengers’ minds as an enjoyable place to stop over.”

One big step could be a massive marketing push to sell Malaysia as a destination – not just in its own right, but as an attractive place to spend a day or two before heading on to your ultimate destination, as can be seen in Singapore, or with enticements by airlines like Etihad and Emirates to break up a journey with free hotel nights in Abu Dhabi or Dubai. Malaysia Airlines already offers a “bonus side trip” – a free ticket to one of eight domestic destinations within Malaysia, such as Penang or Langkawi – as a lure to passengers, which Leib says is a good initiative.

“I think that that’s a pretty serious commitment to try to build that,” he says. “It seems to be akin to the kind of measures that Singapore takes with free stopovers and free tours and things like that, but this sort of goes to the next level. I hope that passengers will be adventurous enough to take advantage of that so that they can have a great adventure while they’re travelling for their greater purpose. And hopefully that will, over time, build up Malaysia as a cool place to stop over – ‘we have these benefits, and we can explore the country a little bit’.

“I think the next thing I would say is Malaysia really needs to have the broadest possible route network to Australia and to Europe, to really replicate what the Middle Eastern corridor offers. They do already fly to several cities in Australia, but not comprehensively, and they also fly to several cities in Europe, but again, much more limited compared to the Middle Eastern carriers. The third thing that I would suggest is that, similar to the free domestic flight kind of initiative, offer things like, if you transit through KLIA you get a $30 shopping voucher, or other incentives to try to make it attractive and value added to passengers, during the time where they’re building up the sort of marketing aspect of travel to Malaysia.”

That route network is key, says Leib, as is making sure KLIA itself has the kind of amenities and convenience that the big Gulf airports – or places like Changi – already offer.

“To seize the opportunity, you need an airline presence there that can serve the market as broadly as these other major airlines at other mega hubs,” he says. “They would really need to make sure they have that, whether it’s Malaysia Airlines or AirAsia, or some big presence that can serve a lot of cities in Australia and a lot of cities in Europe, to be able to create that same connectivity. I think they also need to make sure that they have the services in place that long-haul international passengers, especially on the Australia-Europe corridor, would expect. We can look at those things, because we see them already, or at least, typically through the Middle Eastern corridor. So, it has to have a route network that provides connection times for those flights to serve that market – you wouldn’t want to get off a plane in Kuala Lumpur at 11pm and then the next flight to London is at 10am, that’s really stressful.

“It’s also such a key thing to be able to have international-to-international transit, especially in the low-cost carrier terminal, and especially between the two terminals, to make those seamless connections. I think it’s such a convenience that passengers are used to in this corridor, and to have to introduce entry to the country for all passengers, then I think that creates more a burden for passengers to figure out, okay, what happens if my flight’s cancelled, you know, can I enter the country? Do I need to do an electronic registration? What does that entail? And suddenly the admin around that becomes off-putting. So, I think that’s really a key thing for me.”

As for Malaysia Airlines, the carrier already operates upwards of 70 flights per week between Kuala Lumpur and Australia, and has been rolling out newer A330neo aircraft into Australia to replace its older A330-300s. According to Foong, Malaysia Airlines is aiming to double its passenger capacity over the next five to 10 years while positioning itself as a full-service carrier offering an attractive alternative to Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, and the Gulf giants.

“We have an aspiration to be a top 10 global airline by 2030 – that means we are in the same league with Singapore Airlines, which we are not today,” he said. “That’s an aspiration from a product standpoint, to elevate ourselves to be that ranking. The honest truth is, our fleet size will never be as large as SQ’s. We are looking at 116 aircraft by 2035, and we feel that’s the right fleet. The infrastructure and airport-wise, that’s going to be a longer journey. It’s hard to compete with Changi. We are working with Malaysia Airports to discuss the expansion of KLIA and how we grow KLIA to match the capacity Malaysia Airlines needs to achieve the numbers we see in 2030, so that’s an ongoing conversation for us.

“The aviation landscape in Southeast Asia is dominated by LCCs, and you’ve got AirAsia, you’ve got Batik, you’ve got VietJet, you’ve got all these others, Scoot as well. That’s a very tough space to be in, and we feel that we cannot be in that space, so we must elevate ourselves into the premium space. And to do that means investing in product, tapping the right segments, and building the right services to be there. So, with that, we see KLIA developing now as a connecting hub – and the stats will show that KL is actually a great connecting hub, right? But that’s LCC-driven. So, we have a role to play in this hub, to build the premium segment as well.”

The reporter travelled as a guest of Malaysia Airlines.