I recently booked a flight to Tioman Island, Malaysia on Berjaya Air and have written this review. There is little information about actual Berjaya Air flights out there and no reviews seem to be available. Berjaya fly to several airports that no other airline travels to. Despite this fact, prices are relatively cheap even compared to low cost carriers in the region. The review will look at the whole Berjaya Air travel experience from the airport to the flight.

Berjaya Air is a small airline that operates from Kuala Lumpur and Singapore to a number of tourist destinations in the region. Unlike most other airlines, Berjaya Air operates a fleet of 48 seat Dash 7 turboprops. This allows them to operate from much smaller runways. The islands of Tioman, Redang and Koh Samui do not have particularly large airports and larger 737 or A320 aircraft cannot be used. This means that to fly to these islands Berjaya Air are pretty much your only option. Compared to land and sea travel, considerable time can be saved.

Berjaya Air operate from the secondary airport in both Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. In my case, I was flying from Subang airport in Kuala Lumpur, which is actually the old International airport. The taxi only took 20 minutes from the city to Subang airport which is a lot faster than the new international airport. Recent renovations have dramatically improved the airport and it now resembles a high class shopping mall. There are nice coffee shops, book stores, a juice bar and several decent restaurants. There are also lots of comfortable leather couches to relax on and several free unsecured WIFI spots.

Berjaya Air check in for the Tioman flight officially opens just one hour prior to departure but in reality opens slightly before this. I get the impression that showing up 30 minutes before departure is pretty common. There was no issue with baggage weight, even though officially the limit is 10kg per person. From speaking to others it would appear this is only imposed when the total aircraft payload is close to maximum. If the flight is not full there is never an issue. Furthermore, Berjaya Air seem very flexible with groups sharing their weight allowances which is brilliant.

There is virtually no line for security as the airport has so few passengers. A comfortable gate area greeted us with good views out over the runway. The international and domestic gates are split by a glass partition with a cafe in the middle. This allows one cafe to serve passengers from both sides, without letting the passengers cross over – great planning.

About 10 minutes before departure, a small propeller plane arrived outside and some people disembarked. A few minutes later it was time to board and we walked across the tarmac onto the plane. I was somewhat worried that the seats would be really small, given that I had to bend my neck to get in the door. Fortunately, there was plenty of legroom – probably around 34” which is amazing for such a small airline. Seating was 2-2 and the seats in the first row faced backwards, meaning that if they were empty then anyone in row 2 would have lots of legroom. The outbound flight was full so row 1 and 2 sat facing each other with knees touching.

The flight to Tioman was only 1 hour and the standard seats were more than adequate. The interior of the cabin was looking dated, with the horrible yellow colour now appearing on the back of the tray tables. Furthermore, these Dash 7 aircraft have tiny overhead luggage bins so most bags would struggle to fit in. Consider checking in baggage that might be too large.

I had a window seat and got a fantastic view over the city of Kuala Lumpur after takeoff. As we reached our cruising altitude of 15,000ft the stewardess came round with wet towels and a bottle of water each. No other food or drinks were served.

The Tioman flight was fairly uneventful, though flying so low did mean some fantastic views. The landing at Tioman Island was fantastic due to the positioning of the runway. The plane made a sharp right turn immediately before landing and flew very low over some trees. It felt like a very fast landing compared to normal airports. The aircraft doesn’t refuel here, and in fact keeps one engine running as the return journey is just 20 minutes later.

Tioman airport is really funky. Basically it is open air and the building is made of wood. Luggage was taken by cart from the plane to the building where everyone just sort of grabbed it off the cart. When flying to Tioman, you must pay a nominal fee for the marine park upkeep so this is paid as you arrive at the airport. Open air busses, similar to those used at Disney World, are used to take tourists to their hotels on the island.

The overall ease and comfort of Berjaya Air was fantastic and I would not hesitate to use them again. Tioman flights are daily during the low season and even more frequent in high season. From speaking to other passengers, the Redang flights are very similar. Berjaya group actually own large hotels on all these islands and considerable discount on flights can be had when booking these as packages.