Craig

It's not as bad as 2022. Much better now. Still not 10s approval like it used to be but if further documents are required, it's down to about a week now. And I hope that they will keep a record of your ETA application since it's done on the app now. So they should know who previously applied from the same e-mail/biometric and that should make things much quicker. AF for some reason, like QF, can't make KUL work. Maybe with their 789s it might work. They lack of a suitable aircraft for KUL last time (343/346/744 for LH and 772 for AF). AF has 10x flights to BKK and SIN (IIRC, AF pulled out of BKK not too long ago too but has since returned). One of the big problems with East Asia flights is aircraft usage and crew rotation. Crew gets 2 days off here and most flights require an extended ground time. The much higher yield TATL market requires 1 night for crew and immediate turnaround for most flights. Cenang will be the new Kuta. What's there not to like 🤣

QF flies to CGK, DPS, MNL, SIN, BKK where as JQ flies to DPS, BKK, HKT, SIN. Malaysia join the ranks of Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and Brunei of not having an airlink under the Qantas Group Maybe Mrs./Ms. Hudson (new QF CEO) will warm things up with MH.

Chennai. QF maybe with their A220 PER-KUL 😂

Aeroroutes is reporting that JAI and AMD will be served by AK and not D7. I'd be quite surprised if D7 serves JAI - it's not particularly a big/wealthy city but it's mostly tourists who go there. And what's going on in COK? TG is adding new flights to BKK, MH added it last year, AK flying 17x, SQ flying 14x. I've been there before and it's a relatively wealthy/clean city but I don't remember seeing a huge industry there.

Am I the only one who like the current BKI? It's close to town and an easy 10-15 minute cab ride to the city center (maybe a bit more with traffic). You can always see plane land or take off from the city center (not the best for noise pollution tho). Kimanis is easily 60 minutes away from KK, if not more? Can we not emulate Indonesia by building airport that's least 1+ hour away from the city (KNO, KJT, YIA comes to mind).

Fixed it for you.

please delete

I am curious if they are under financial duress. Not only they are reducing KUL, but they are suspending a lot of destinations and reducing flights to a lot of destinations too. Doesn't really bode well for their entry into Oneworld this year.

Not exactly KUL only, but most of it is KUL centric. Some interesting highlights from latest MAVCOM's latest Waypoint Bulletin (for Jan-Sep 2023): Top domestic pax routes (in descending order, bold if 2023>2019): KUL-BKI, KUL-KCH, KUL-LGK, KUL-PEN, KUL-KBR Top ASEAN pax routes: KUL-SIN, KUL-CGK, PEN-SIN, KUL-DMK, KUL-DPS (KUL-BKK+DMK combined is probably the second highest pax route) Top non-ASEAN pax routes: KUL-DAC, KUL-TPE, KUL-JED, KUL-DXB, KUL-HKG International seat capacity breakdown from Malaysia: ASEAN - 55.3% East Asia - 18.7% South Asia - 11.6% West Asia - 7.1% South Pacific - 5.2% Europe - 1.8% (paltry compared to 8.1% and 9.5% for SG/TH respectively) I am curious what region does ET's service to ADD and MK to MRU falls under. Top transit pax routes for Malaysia (the #8-10 spots are rather surprising): India-KUL-Indonesia India-KUL-Australia Indonesia-KUL-Thailand Vietnam-KUL-Indonesia Thailand-KUL-Australia Indonesia-KUL-China Nepal-KUL-Australia India-KUL-New Zealand Turkiye-KUL-Australia Singapore-KUL-Indonesia Top transit pax routes for Singapore India-SIN-Australia Australia-SIN-UK Thailand-SIN-Australia Japan-SIN-Indonesia Indonesia-SIN-India Indonesia-SIN-South Korea Indonesia-SIN-Thailand Australia-SIN-Germany Australia-SIN-Japan Vietname-SIN-Australia Now I know why SIN has so many flights to Australia/Germany/UK.

When was this? I thought they haven't changed their cabin crew uniform in ages? Chicken and egg. MH knows their yields are low (and maybe Malaysian consumers are counting down to the last sen as well) so they wouldn't refurbish it with a more padded seat or take away a row in Y and increase price. Or higher yield passengers (especially non-MY O&D pax) won't pay for a subpar product and would rather pay more for say SQ/QR.

Think of Chinese airlines as subsidized Middle East airlines. They want to connect China to the world and they are launching routes left and right without regards to profitability right now. Some routes are head scratcher, e.g. China Southern to Luxembourg (pax, not cargo) and another to Marseille etc. connecting some secondary/tertiary cities in China to secondary cities in Europe/Asia.

Haven't flown a Max and probably will avoid it as much as I can in the future. This and the news of 737 Max 7 certification lobbying doesn't really install confidence that I'll be in a safe tube.

Firefly adds more MH codeshare routes from KUL. I am curious about this - FY doesn't serve KUL and they aren't a connecting carrier (I don't believe they have a through checkin service) and you don't get any OneWorld benefits on a FY code and you can only credit your miles to Enrich. So why 😅

I think it was at CAPA meeting that the CEO said they are looking at adding another 10 wide body and 35 narrowbody to their fleet (in addition to the 20 339 and 6/7 359). I can't find the news article but I forgot if it included increasing their proposed 359 count to 10 as well. So MAG will probably have 36-40 wide body by 2027-28, a nice increase from the current 28 today. The 350s can be used for Europe expansion (*if* they have a fleet of 10) but I don't believe US will be in their radar in the near/medium term. US isn't exactly a place Malaysians frequently travel to. Same goes for Americans to Malaysia. CX, NH, SQ, PR, Taiwanese carriers, ME4 + TK have covered pretty well for MY-US/CA traffic. It's just really far for most Malaysians to travel to and we almost always stick to ANZ and Europe for our "western" countries holidays. If anything, I'd rather MH return back to JNB/CPT. SQ is taking the bulk of Southeast/East Asia plus ANZ - Southern Africa traffic. Southern Africa is a route less traveled for most Asians, but you get a lot for your ringgit there. Think of it as Europe quality produce at Malaysian price

Nice. Congrats on the op-up. Now the million dollar question - was Nescafe Gold served in Suites 🤣

MH uploaded their NS24 updates. Interesting network additions: KUL-DPS: 332 operates selected flights on MH 850/851 KUL-HKG increase from 2x to 3x daily with the return of MH432/433 (1335 departure ex-KUL; 1835 departure ex-HKG). I was hoping they'd renumber this flight KUL-MNL increase from 15x weekly to 21x weekly KUL-MEL ex-SAS 350 to continue operating MH148/149 KUL-ICN increase from 7x to 12x weekly with the resumption of MH38/39 (1450 departure ex-KUL, 0010 departure ex-ICN). Reservations still unavailable for MH 38/39 KUL-HND reservations still not open KUL-XMN tentative resumption but reservations aren't open (they suspended it in October?)

Sarawak wants to emulate success of Emirates for MASWings 😬

Ever since the LHR meltdown of 2022, I've invested in air tags and made sure that all my check-ins have an air tag. It costs a pretty penny but gives you the peace of mind there is a high possibility knowing where your bag is when the airline shrugs at you.

Not surprising. Why would MAG touch SKS. They don't have planes nor routes/slots MH need. The AOC might be something worthy if MH wants another subsidiary but I don't believe they are. They could probably merge with Berjaya Air tho given the latter flies to similar destinations.

I honestly don't know what the big issue is. Changi T1-3 has the exact same system and it works for them. Be careful what you wish for - a central security means there's a chance that there can be very long queues at security and you'll miss your flight. Something like LHR/AMS Summer 2022. It is not fun spending 1-2 hours queuing up for security during peak period when it currently takes less than 5-10 minutes every time (for me at least). If MAHB is going to build a whole new terminal, sure, don't do mixed arrivals and departures but this is too late to fix. I cannot believe we are discussing about this a quarter of century into KUL's operation. Of course. MAHB can also tear down whole of T1 and build something like Jewel at SIN or Orchard at DOH or even a tapir sanctuary in the middle too if you are funding the entire reconstruction. The cost to separate arrival and departure is astronomical for T1. Try going to the end of G pier towards G10. You'll see a cordoned area reserved for the NTLs, some of whom could be victims of human trafficking. And today we have our first customs seizure of fentanyl. Oddly enough, it was flying BOM-KUL-DXB. There is probably enough fentanyl to make whole of Dubai city of zombies.

Less cost to build (only 1 level is required, same train service etc.), but more cost to operate, X-ray machines, metal detector, staff manning gates. But you are right - it's very convenient for transit pax and for any pax who is doing a turnaround.

FY filed for PEN-HAN 7x weekly services to begin Feb. 2024. Odd that they chose HAN over SGN for their Vietnam market.

From Aeroroutes' Qatar NS24 changes: QR 852/853 is extended for NS24 (other than a brief suspension between 10 and 30 March). QR and MH will have 2 daily flights each. (QR 2x 77W, MH 1x350 and 1x330). QR is dropping PEN on the other hand from 01Jun24 till 26Oct24 (as seasonal QR 840/841 does not operate then). And FM will increase their PVG-KUL flights from 2x to 3x daily. New schedule: FM863 PVG0030 - 0610KUL 737 D FM864 KUL0715 - 1315PVG 737 D

I have been to all 5. Mind is a little blurry on DEL, BOM, CGK as I haven’t been back in a while. For HKG and BKK, you arrive at the lower level. Head over to one of the security check points, clear security and theb head back up the departures level. It cannot be done at the C/H/G gates at KUL. Unless we decide that everyone who arrives at KUL is “clean” so they may all just enter the sterile (post-security) area. And we don’t have a large enough space at the customs checkpoint to do a central security. HKG BKK has at the very minimum 2 different security check points prior to entering the sterile area. Their 1 area is as large as, if not larger, than our current customs check point with lots of room behind for queues, if necessary.

To be fair, this allows you to maximize your time outside the gate area (be it at the lounge or restaurant, or duty free shops). Just show up at the gate 5 minutes before scheduled closing time to clear security and you’ll be good. But of course if everyone does this, then our flights will all be delayed like MH 🌝 You are forgetting arriving international pax. The area at the current customs checkpoint (which is absolutely useless, all they do is chat with each other and not even look at the screens) is too small for a centralized security check. Queues during peak hour will go all the way beyond immigration.