Craig

I highly doubt the price of alcohol is a strong determining factor for tourists. And there's always a local alternative - e.g. tuak and I don't believe they are subjected to the same taxes as say sake.

MAG will finally end its agreement with Brahims after 26 years of "partnership". As far as I know, LHR/Japan flights are currently catered by Pos Aviation. I am curious if Village Park nasi lemak will make an appearance on MH soon 🤣 And what alternative F&B entails? They are collaborating with Mandarin Oriental KL for their lounge catering for Merdeka and Malaysia Day - the future looks a bit more promising for wise. I visited the domestic KUL lounge recently and I noticed that catering has improved a lot. Are the lounges catered by Awana or PPL now?

Not much MH can do other than leasing A35Ks or bigger aircraft for LHR. There are no rights restriction but getting a slot is next to impossible. On a side note, QR is pretty much wet leasing MH's aircraft to DOH. With the new 359 scheduled to DOH, MH will sell 4F, 4J, 47Y (including 5 Y+) seats with the rest being sold by QR. MH is currently selling 6J, 53Y (including 4 Y+ seats) on their 333 flights to DOH. Can't imagine MH selling a lot of beyond DOH tickets on QR.

Flight numbers will be MH206 and MH207. I can't be the only OCD person who thinks that MH number their flights akin to throwing darts at the wall. How much effort/$ will it cost them to redo all their flight numbers? I always thought MH 101-119 / 170-199 is reserved for South Asia. MH 201-204 was previously used for JNB/CPT/EZE. Another good example is HKG MH72/73/78/79 and the 3rd flight used to be MH4xx but China/Taiwan is MH3xx (with occasional MH4xx to tertiary cities in China previously). Make it simple, e.g.: MH1-49: Europe MH50-99: Japan/South Korea + US MH100-199: ANZ MH200-299: South Asia + Middle East + Africa MH300-399: Greater China MH600-699: Singapore MH700-899: ASEAN ex. SIN Or if they really want to plan for the future where they might fly more than 24 times a day to Europe, the MH1-99: Europe, MH200-299: JP/KR + US, MH400-599: South Asia + Middle East + Africa. I am curious if they are sticking to the same flight numbers for historical/sentimental reasons. e.g. MH88/89 to NRT, MH 72/73 to HKG etc.

MH will add Amritsar to its network beginning 10NOV23 (7th destination in India after DEL, BOM, MAA, BLR, HYD, COK). Not your typical India flight schedule (usually a few hours earlier) but they are planning to use the 738s for this flight?! It's 2,653 miles as the crow flies (slightly closer than KUL-PKX and slightly further than KUL-PER).

I am curious if MH is pulling out of HND beginning next month? MH36 to HND ends on 16SEP whilst MH70 to NRT begins on 17SEP. MH previously loaded MH36/37 for NW23/24 schedules but was never opened for sale and aeroroutes reported that MH36/37 was removed from schedule and replaced with MH70/71 instead. Did MH have problems securing HND slots for NW23/24 or is MH70/71 schedule better for MH (and does this mean MH will no longer serve HND in the future)? Looking ahead, MH36/37 is loaded for Northern Summer 2024 (begins end of March) schedule but not open for sale where as MH70/71 is loaded and opened for sale. NH885/886 (HND-KUL) seems to be remain at 5x for the longest time even tho other SEA cities with similar nighttime schedule has been restored back to daily.

They have 2 daytime slots (and one each for JL/NH for HND-SIN) and 2 nighttime slots (one each for NH/JL as well). Each daytime slot a foreign carrier received will be reciprocated with a JL/NH slot to that country where as nighttime slot is less restrictive.

Interesting. So they have MH 1-4 (3 frames), MH 160-161 (1 frame, F/J not open for reservations yet), MH 148/149 (1 frame, F open for reservations), MH 36/37 (1 frame, not open for reservations yet in all classes), and MH 88/89 (1 frame) and all of them showing MH's 359 configuration. If I have to guess, it'd be MH 160-161 (DOH) that'll get the SK's 359 cabin. And soon MH 164-165 when they receive SK's second A359.

I understand that CX's 359 aren't available. Just saying that would have been a nice (missed) addition. Thank you for HX's 359 status - I didn't know that the 359s are gone from HX for good and that they don't have any 359-rated pilots. As for MH's 332, I read further up that their lease was extended for another 5 years but I wasn't expecting them to fly to AKL for another year given the challenges these planes pose for this long-haul sector. The 339s were primed for AKL but I also recall (correctly, I hope) that they were expecting their first plane Q4 2023 but it seems like it has been delayed by another 3 quarters.

Do I remember correctly that MH was expecting to receive their 1st A339 sometime Q4 2023 and now it has been pushed further back to Q3 2024? Does this mean the A332 will serve AKL for at least another year (unless the leased A359 will take over AKL)? CX 350 would have been a nice addition. According to Hong Kong Airlines fleet page, they still have 2 A359 in operation (can't tell when the website was last updated) but FR24 doesn't show any active A359 with HX. Their seat map seems to indicate reverse herringbone seat. And if MH is insisting with that herringbone seat, I assume they don't want to change the cabin and lease it as it is.

For a moment, I thought you have 6th sense and you can predict something happening 4 days away.

Thank you. I wasn't aware of that. Now I wonder if MH wants to pick all 5 aircraft up.

Interesting. I am curious if MH is looking at 35-40 J seats for their 359s since CX/SK have similar capacity. And I didn't know SK is trying to get rid of their 359s. I thought they are short of planes too.

Thank you. Interesting. SAS A359 is configured with 40J/32W/228Y (where as MH's 359 is 4F/35J/27E+/220Y). I am curious if MH is planning to introduce W (Premium Economy) or will they reconfigure this cabin, not that anything is wrong with SAS' cabin. I've been on SE-RSE and I love their 350 (and J seats on 330/359).

Interesting. As sweekee mentioned - where is this aircraft leased from and what cabin will it come in?

I mean once MH receive sufficient 339s. I always thought AKL will be the first one to switch to 339.

I mean once MH receive sufficient 339s. I always thought AKL will be the first one to switch to 339.

I hope they are doing regionals like SIN, CGK, BKK, DPS and at most MNL/HAN?

I remember at one point MH traded their LHR slots in exchange for more landing rights to India (for MH 7/8, 3rd daily flight). MH's main competitors are all mostly flying flat bed from India-Southeast Asia / Australia (SQ, CX, AI, QF, and to a certain extent TG but TG's SEA/ANZ network isn't quite there yet) and we have MH flying a lot of regional business class between the two. I assume when the A339s come onboard, the A332s will be retired first but the A333s will keep flying for a while until they order more planes (A359/Ks?). Those current A333s are good enough for regional/India/PER routes.

It currently shows 6x A333 weekly flights for BOM and DEL for NW23. I am curious if they are also restricted on capacity due to bilateral capacity cap. Shockingly, only Indigo flies to KUL with once a day MAA-KUL flight with a very inconvenient schedule.

MH's updated B737 Max 8 operations for NW23. I understand they are scheduling flights to say PEN/KCH/HKT/CGK for crew familiarization and if anything goes wrong enough, they can reschedule / cancel but are there plans for them to fly these planes to the Indian subcontinent? Or do they want the slightly higher premium capacity for those routes and maybe take a cut on cargo?

I think we are seeing more of QR's OW partner taking over QR's flight. AY taking over CPH/ARN/HEL (I can't remember which station) for QR, IB for MAD, and coming 2024, most likely JL for QR's HND-DOH unless they plan to run 2 flights within an hour or two of each other. Now if they can resume DOH-PEN and serve that 1 daily DOH-KUL, that'd be much better.

Interesting. They only fly to SIN, KUL, BKK outside of ID in ASEAN. KUL/BKK once daily and SIN multiple times daily.

IIRC, QR also flies 3x to SIN but KUL gets 3-4 more weekly services with QR during their summer seasonal service in 2019. I don't recall QR doing more than 3x service to SIN (same as KUL).

Qatar is operating 1x where as MH is operating 2x with all three flights having relatively short turnaround at destination to maximize aircraft usage. This is the same as 2019 frequency (although QR has 3-4 additional weekly flights during summer) but slightly lower capacity because MH doesn't have any 77Ws.