Craig

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.

MH will add 1 additional seasonal flight each to SYD and MEL. MH7031 KUL2335 - 1055+1SYD 333 5 (03NOV - 03FEB) MH7030 SYD1310 - 1845KUL 333 6 MH7041 KUL0445 - 1540MEL 333 5 (29DEC - 02FEB) MH7040 MEL1740 - 2255KUL 333 5 MH7031/7030 is *identical* to MH 122/123 schedule wise. Can't they move the schedule a bit or are their 333s are kinda fully utilized or they can't get decent slots at SYD/MEL? Ditto for MH7041 to MEL - seems like an ungodly departure time from KUL. In other news, it seems like MH 796/797 (RON flight to BKK, late departure from KUL and early morning departure from BKK) is back. MH will also upgauge their 2 DOH flights to 359 and downgauge NRT/KIX to 333 (maybe MH/QR needed more premium seats to DOH?). It appears that all of MH's 359s are fully utilized: MH 1-4 (3 frames), MH 36/37 (HND) 1 frame, MH 160/161/164/165 (DOH) 2 frames.

Anyone else finds it odd that GA only flies once a day to KUL when MH (another full service carrier) flies it 4 times a day including a RON. Pretty much any airline flying this route (other than KLM) has more frequencies than GA.

I think SQ mostly focuses on SG originating corporate pax (I've seen quite a few bankers on SQ SIN-KUL flights) and connecting pax for its KUL flight. Their fares are not competitive and no one is willing to pay 20-30% more for a 45 minute flight. Even my SG based PPS friend refuses to pay for a SQ business ticket but rather pay for a MH business (SIN-KUL) ticket and the occasional XSP-SZB because of how much more SQ costs (and according to them, MH wins hands down in this short sector minus flat bed seats). And I don't know why they can't even put a 738 flight after SQ 125/126. 1835 seems a bit early for their last SIN-KUL flight.

Pakatan launch their Selangor elections manifesto recently and one of them includes linking Tanjung Sepat and Sungai Pelek with KLIA (I assume the KLIA express extension?). I have absolutely no clue where those places are and I had to look it up.

SQ will reduce SIN-KUL from 68 weekly to 47 weekly beginning NW23/24 schedules (only SQ 126 will remain on 359 plus 106 on weekdays and 108 on weekends). As for PEN, SQ will fly 5 daily on 738 instead of 738/7M8 mix and Scoot will increase from 18 to 21 weekly flights. And lastly, MYY will be increased to 3x weekly. I am shocked that SQ Group has 8 daily flights to PEN!

MH will resume MH78/79 to HKG gradually beginning August. Day 3,5,7 beginning 02AUG23 and Day 2,3,5,7 beginning 01OCT23 and daily from 29Oct2023 (HKG-KUL departs next day). I am curious how high yield HKG is for MH to resume MH78/79 first instead of the afternoon departure ex-KUL (RON + airport known for very expensive parking fees).

Saw on social media that MH is actively recruiting foreign crew (Jakarta, Bangkok, Manila, Tokyo, Seoul, Mumbai, HCMC). I am curious if they are planning to set up foreign crew base or will they be based in KL and work on those respective language flights. It will be nice to hear "In addition to Malay and English, our multilingual crew are also able to communicate in xxx language on this flight" like some airlines do.

Nothing is stopping you from walking down the "Sabah arrivals" exit if you do not have bags checked and off you go 😛 Leaving Sabah tho will be a different matter.

I've been to Sabah a few times and often I am shocked how expensive it is over there for something that isn't found locally. Logistics cost of shipping a lot of things either from Peninsula or outside Malaysia coupled with low wages means local have very low spending power. I can't imagine it will be cheap other than labour cost for corporation to set up a HQ or manufacturing facility in Sabah. Sarawak on the other hand is actually very affordable. Weren't there some rumours back in 2019 that Qatar wants to fly to BKI (and they realize that there are a lot of connections to BKI on their flights?). Do the Middle Eastern visitors enjoy outdoors (i.e. national park, scuba diving, hiking etc.) activities tho? I don't think Arabs should be Sabah's target. Europe, ANZ, US/Canada etc. are better target markets for Sabah. And US State Department has updated east coast Sabah (Sipadan, Sandakan, etc.) to Level 2 (exercise increased level of caution) instead of Level 3 avoid all non-essential travel. I think QR's Cebu flight is mainly to cater to migrant workers where as Koreans have invested a lot in Cebu as well. I was surprised to see so many Koreans in Cebu and surrounding islands. I am curious - where is the second runway supposed to be? Directly parallel and adjacent to the current one?

Pesky Airbnbs or vacant apartments aren't just limited to Kota Kinabalu / Malaysia alone. A lot of big cities (e.g. London, UK, Vancouver, BC) suffer from this problem too. A lot of these homes are sold to overseas investors to park their cash and they rather just let it sit empty rather than renting it out. And Malaysia is one of the few countries where we build "Airbnb/homestay specialized condos" and stupidly enough, people buy it not knowing that hotel rates in Malaysia is one of the cheapest in the region. You know, I know, and most likely the blind even know why a new airport is the preferred option. But Kimanis? That's a good 50km from KK city center (almost as far as KLIA from KL CBD). Like you say, it's an hour drive from KK without traffic and Sabah roads aren't exactly potholes and traffic free either. I guess CAAM still want foreign carriers into BKI and thus are still kissing the airline's asses for now. Speaking of Australia, who remembers Australian Airlines twice weekly MEL-BKI B767 in the early 2000s? Now we don't even get Jetstar (JQ), let alone Qantas. 😂😂😂

Always thought they already code-share / have some sort of partnership on MY-CN routes. CZ is back to pre-covid capacity for CAN-KUL and CAN-PEN.

Malaysia Airlines will receive its first B737-8 beginning August. From MH's press release: Now that I look at the wau the second time on a larger picture, it does look odd with the songket motif. I prefer it plain like the 737NGs/330. And less "enhancements" will be nice. I am curious if airlines ever use other terms for implementing cost-saving unpopular measures. I hope they are at least equipped with WiFi (not an internal one but rather one where pax can actually connect to the outside world).

Air China has quietly launched a new TFU-KUL (TFU = Chengdu Tianfu Airport) today. CA483 CFU1320 - 1735KUL 1356 32N CA484 KUL1850 - 2325CFU 1356 32N And separately, Sky Angkor will add KUL beginning 18 August 2023. ZA666 PNH1855 - 2200KUL 320 D (Interesting flight number, might be the first 666 flight number at KUL) ZA667 KUL2300 - 2350PNH 320 D

NTL pax pays Mono Circle Sdn Bhd to handle their flight tickets out of Malaysia which of course incurs an agent "fee". That has always been the case (for a very long time). It's the airline's responsibilities to check whether a pax is allowed to enter the country. Airlines just can't fly passenger without a valid visa to a destination. There maybe some exceptions - but in general, they are required to check at a minimum, visa/VOA/ETA etc. and if required by destination country, an exit ticket. The exit ticket was rigorously enforced just after the borders opened up after covid. Even to neighboring countries like Indonesia and Thailand.

Seems like Malaysia will follow ICAO NTL pax convention by making inbound airlines responsible for NTL pax instead of outsourcing it to a third party.

Well nobody is talking about it now as long as a former PM keeps blabbing about a multiracial Malaysia is against the constitution These news are how do they call it....warm warm chicken poop? 😂 I think once the NTL is issued (according to the immigration officer, only the director can remove it) it doesn't matter if she shows proof of an exit ticket to the officer then. But I am curious about the "travel agent" - most countries just fine the airline that brought the NTL pax in and let that airline send pax back to wherever they came from. I am just curious if someone can just buy their own ticket (if they can afford it) bypassing the hefty "agent fees". This is the oddest international destination to check for a return ticket (especially so if pax is Singaporean). It's not like Malaysia is New Zealand where they need to fly somewhere far to leave the country. What if it's a backpacker who intends to fly to KL and then do overland to Thailand (very common) and they all do not have a set schedule. I don't even have a fix schedule when I leave a country - all I need to know is that I will not stay beyond my visa/social visit pass validity. My LHR T2 experience was a bit different than yours. I was surprised that immigration was completely empty last month and there was an intern/trainee with her supervisor. So the intern was going through all the questions in her head and asked us a lot of questions so much so that the supervisor was laughing (I entertained the intern/trainee as well but the supervisor was very kind and we were all having a good laugh). I guess they have nothing but time so we were just chatting.