Confirming an earlier report about the planned relaunch of Kota Kinabalu – Tokyo Haneda by Malaysia Airlines, the airline opened the route for booking. Starting from February 24, 2025, in the direction to Japan and a day later in the other direction, it will operate as follows:
- MH82 / Kota Kinabalu – Tokyo Haneda / 4:05PM – 10:30PM / Mon, Thu
- MH83 / Tokyo Haneda – Kota Kinabalu / 12:05AM – 5:45AM / Tue, Fri
Malaysia Airlines will use the denser of its two Boeing 737-800 configurations on the route. The 174-seater configuration consists of 12 business and 162 economy class seats compared with the 160-seater configuration’s 16 business and 144 economy class seats.
Currently, no other airline offers non-stop flights between Tokyo and the Malaysian city. That said, Malaysia Airlines connects Kuala Lumpur with Tokyo Narita. Between August 2023 and May 2024 it also operated Kota Kinabalu – Narita. Prior to that, until January 2012, it operated Kota Kinabalu – Haneda.
