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Craig

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Posts posted by Craig

  1. Posted · Report reply

    Seems like 19th May MH318 to PKX returned to base close to Hanoi. Flight path showed that they circle Hanoi just before the Chinese border and the head out to South China Sea trying to go around Hainan Island before returning back to KUL. 
     

    Was there a problem with CN airspace or did the aircraft had a problem (seems a bit unlikely given the path but I am not sure). 

  3. Posted · Report reply

    11 hours ago, JuliusWong said:

    Immigration website says otherwise though.....

    Malaysia government is known for updating their websites :) We even listed Yugoslavia as a country on MFA's website not too long ago and we copied and pasted Singapore's equivalent of visitor arrival card.

    10 hours ago, Kee Hooi Yen said:

    We have our fingerprint registered with Malaysian immigration during our previous visits many years ago. Each time during our entry to Malaysia, we are asked to verify our fingerprint at the immigration counter.

    This is the first time we could head directly to the e-gate and waltz through without verifying our fingerprint.

    So previously you had to go to an immigration officer so that they can inspect you on arrival in person. But this time (I assume this is your first visit to Malaysia this year?), you waltzed through the e-gates without having to register with an officer at the desk to the right of the e-gates?

  4. Posted · Report reply

    10 hours ago, Kee Hooi Yen said:

    Last I understand the foreigners need to go through the immigration counter on their first entry for their finger prints to be collected by the officer.

    Previously yes but from what I read, they have abolished the fingerprint or at least registration as a first time user recently. First time users can just waltz through the e-gates now and I was curious if that was the case with you.

  5. Posted · Report reply

    21 minutes ago, Kee Hooi Yen said:

     I am not sure if I have missed it but I don’t recall I have seen any sign mentioning the passport holders of the 10 countries that could use the e-gates. 

    You have to look for the yellow color A4 sized paper maybe at about waist level as you approach the immigration counters. And you have to look for the word "Australia" printed maybe in font size 18 along with the 9 other countries lol. They actually have a 32" TV on top of the health check area asking passport holders of those 10 countries to use the e-gates. But most are unaware of it.

    Did you have to register for it manually at the counter (if it's your first time) or did you just fill in your MDAC and head straight to the e-gates? From what I gather, they have done away with the registration for first time users and passengers can just use the e-gates once they have filled in their MDAC forms.

    But Malaysia being Malaysia, they haven't learned to be concise yet. If you've ever driven on a highway in Malaysia, try looking at those electronic advisory boards. They expect you to read a novel when you are driving through at 100 km/h.

  6. Posted · Report reply

    2 hours ago, Robert said:

    Thats when they say that they need a new bigger airport in a new location

    Maybe we'll build one in Johor and have HSR to both SG and KL 🤣. KLIA land bank is huge. Just that a lot of it is palm oil plantation.

    I am curious if there's a mirror image of current T1, wouldn't the rail service be affected as well? The current line is at grade and they can't really do much around there (unless they plan to reconstruct the line and demolish Aeropolis which is highly unlikely). If they were to build a T3, it'd need to be west of current T2 or east of T1. Assuming T3 is for full service carriers, it'd be a pain for transfer then.

  7. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    3 hours ago, Robert said:

    was also playing around with google earth and flipped a copy T1 to show what the it could look like if they didn't scrap the original plan. Can see from this how the road encroaches.

    The could probably redo some of the plan. The development rights for the Aeropolis by MAHB to KLIA Aeropolis (a subsidiary of MAHB, somewhat common to set up a subsidiary for tax and liability reasons) will last until 2121. So the mirror image will not be possible. I am curious what happens when 50MPPA is reached when both satellites are full. Maybe Terminal 3 will be to the west of current T2.

  9. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Robert said:

    Earlier this month it seems that the PM rebuked the  Immigration Dept over tourist entry congestion. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/05/02/pm-rebukes-immigration-dept-over-tourist-entry-congestion

    Yesterday it was announced that 36 more construes can use the auto-gates from 1st June https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/05/17/more-can-use-autogate

    He and Johor MB can rebuke all they want. It's not going to change things.

    Hopefully they'll print 2 more A4 sized sheets with these 36 new countries included 🤣 I am curious if they'll put a EU flag or those 27 individual states individually. And if they put a EU flag, will Germany's flag be removed from the initial A4 paper. That seems like they need to print 3 pages instead of 2. Macau seems to be the stepchild in Malaysia's OneChina policy 🤣

    On a more serious note, I hope they will build more e-gates. The current ones are OK but at peak time, the queues can be quite long. I don't think it'll be sufficient when these 36 countries become eligible for e-gates.

  10. Posted · Report reply

    6 hours ago, kandiah k said:

    So I suppose MTB can handle 50 million ppa if Satellite B is built? Or do they have plans to also expand the MTB to accommodate more capacity in view of Satellite B? 

    Each satellite can accommodate 20 MPPA. But the problem doesn't just end there. The bottle neck will be outbound and inbound immigration (as if both aren't bad enough on some days). That area is permanent. They could do what BKK did and doubling the counters by making one front and one to the back. I think there were plans for this at KUL now.

    However, immigration will still be a bottle neck at BKK because they just opened a new satellite concourse, the S  gates. Whilst this will alleviate gate availability and floor space, it wouldn't alleviate the immigration bottleneck. Because everyone from satellite will be using the same immigration counters. They needed a new terminal but they got a new concourse instead. Much akin to KUL T1 and T2 sharing one huge immigration hall.

    1 hour ago, Pall said:

    MTB is facing shortage of parking bays especially during the morning wave. In some cases change over times between departing and arriving aircraft are as low as 5mins. Due to the nature of airline operations and inefficacies of KUL ATC (poorest ATC management) in the region, unnecessary delays are caused due to this. It's not going to get any better with OD and MH adding more capacity from here. Perhaps open bay operations are a short term fix, but our climate is not welcoming anyways. Rains and heatwave will not be conducive for passengers. KLIA users are paying the price for the lack of planning by MAHB.  

    It's quite nice for a MH737 to park at an even numbered C gates in the morning lol. I thought I read somewhere that they upgraded their ATC about 2-3 years back and it's one of the better ones in the world? There are more airways available than before. It's not common to see a plane circling in the air compared to before unless there's weather.

    Malaysia rain is not just a rainstorm but more often than not, it's a thunderstorm. No one is allowed outside a building during a thunderstorm (I hope this applies in Malaysia). Passengers can't disembark or board a plane parked remotely during a thunderstorm, neither can ramp agents be outside during a thunderstorm. But yet Tony wanted all remote gates for his terminal lol. 

    Lack of planning or lack of funding? Maybe that's why they are selling their stake to raise funds :)

  11. Posted · Report reply

    6 hours ago, kandiah k said:

    Yeah I guess so but MH could code share heavily on JL for their flights out of HND. I recently flew on a flight from KUL-JFK on JL via SIN and HND. Oh well maybe yields, slots or more could be the main reason(s) why we do not have a KUL-HND-KUL on the Oneworld carriers. Star Alliance works well on that route. 

    Problem is MH doesn't fly to HND anymore. They said they are planning to return to HND but who knows. A daytime slot would work well but that 22:00 arrival is not the best. Any delays and passengers will risk paying an expensive cab fare to the city. And without daytime slot to HND, most pax will have to overnight at Tokyo anyway for US bound pax on JL. 

    If you look at JL's schedule, they aren't really keen on US/Canada bound pax. All pax will have to overnight at NRT on their return. JL is happy to serve just the JP-MY + beyond traffic at KUL. And MY-US market is tiny. More than half the plane will be connecting pax if they serve say KUL-LAX nonstop (the largest market US-MY market).

  12. Posted · Report reply

    59 minutes ago, kandiah k said:

    Wonder why MH or JL don't utilize the KUL-HND-JFK/Beyond? Any connection now on MH or JL requires a change of airport from NRT to HND and beyond vice versa. Yields? Slots? 

    They don't even have daytime slots lol. And I don't believe Japan has granted foreign carriers 5th freedom at HND. 

  13. Posted · Report reply

    39 minutes ago, Robert said:

    Im curious how close they are to needing an additional satellite terminal. 

    Very lol. When they built T1 as it is, it was meant to handle 25 MPPA. I think they tweaked it a little and it can handle. T1 handled 7.224 MM pax from January to March this year. Assuming the same number of pax travel for the rest of the quarters, it will hit around 28-29 MPPA. 

  14. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, JuliusWong said:

    I would like to ask, has Malaysian carriers exhausted our allocation for Japan, especially to Narita/ Haneda and Osaka? Tried reading MAVCOM document but got confused.

    Semi-open skies. Unlimited 3rd and 4th freedom traffic between any points in Malaysia and Japan. Only exception is HND where Malaysia based carrier are given 14 weekly night slots (7 of those slots must be used to code-share with a Japanese carrier; night slots are 22:00-06:00). Malaysia carriers are also limited to 4x weekly 5th freedom flights beyond NRT to SFO, LAX, and ICN (hence MH's former, MH92/93, KUL-NRT-LAX operated only 3-4x a week whilst the rest was via TPE). Also why Air Asia X operated to HNL via KIX. 

  15. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    1 hour ago, jani said:

    MAHB will now not be "accountable" to public investors, but will be accountable, directly, to Khazanah, EPF and more importantly GIP and ADIA.

    Agreed. I feel like public listed doesn't mean it wouldn't be subjected to leakages or government intervention. I highly doubt EPF and Khazanah as major shareholders would want to mess around their portfolio and GIP/ADIA would want to invest in loss-making or funny accounting companies. MAHB has fiduciary duty to ensure that their shareholders get their return on investment. They would have done their due diligence. I think this more of MAHB trying to raise funds for future projects.

    I quite like what MAHB has done with the T1 satellite now. It's quite nice. They could replace the glass lifts, escalators, and transfer counters tho. Some retail does seem a bit tight but I guess they didn't design it for a lot of retail back in the 90s. 

  16. Posted · Report reply

    2 minutes ago, Robert said:

    so MAE received a C check, how long does that usually take?

    Last flight was 24 March. So I'd say 7-8 weeks? I assume MAF is in the workshop now for a C check. And -MAC is still on the ground from tech since 10/5.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    6 hours ago, Izanee said:

    It’s a shame that QF can’t make KUL work. I’m surprised that they can make BNE-MNL work but not KUL. They already have SYD-MNL!!

    Part of me thinks that QF was choosing between SYD-KUL and BNE-MNL (probably along with a few others) because the purported SYD-KUL on MAHB also lists 4 (or 5) weekly service. And looking at QF's BNE-MNL schedule, 01:00 arrival and 02:45 departure at MNL, those kind of schedule probably wouldn't work for KUL (assuming it's based on QF's aircraft availability, not slots).

    MY-AU fares on MH aren't exactly low. Can't compare it with D7/OD because it's apples and oranges. I am curious if there's a huge Filipino population in greater BNE area. 

  21. Posted · Report reply

    35 minutes ago, Robert said:

    I get the yield issue but JQ is LCC so it may work.

    I thought you only needed an ETA for holidays and not the subclass 600 visa. Is the ETA a hassle now? 

    I don't know about QF's expected yield from Malaysia but MH is quite gung ho on Australia. They have a lot of connections from/to Asia and UK that can feed to/from their Aussie flights. And then there's also a large Malaysian diaspora in Australia, especially Melbourne. TK, EY, WY also connect their passengers to ANZ via MH (plus OD on some carriers but any seasoned traveler would choose MH over OD).

    It's an ETA. We used to get the approval in 3 seconds or so before covid. After covid, Australia require a bit more documentation from certain demographic, mostly young working age adults because there are quite a few Malaysians who overstay or work illegally in Australia (especially in fruit farms). From what I gather, the pain is usually the first time applying using the Australia ETA app (travel agent can't assist pax in applying anymore and seniors are usually instantly approved as well). If I am not mistaken, your data is stored in the app and subsequent ETA application (if you've entered at least once and left after covid) is pretty straight forward and fast as well.

    28 minutes ago, flee said:

    Nowadays, they prefer to route pax to their SIN flights on 3K. 

    Except that 3K departs from SIN T4 and the connections aren't as seamless as it used to be. Loss of lounge for QF FFPs (they have to leave for T4 much earlier) and for business pax, it's a coach seat and 3K doesn't have the best OTP as well. 

  23. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    Well, MH finally managed to secure 2 highly coveted morning arrival slots at LHR, at least for tomorrow morning. MH2 and MH2D (I couldn't keep track which original MH 2 this was. I suspect it's yesterday's 12/5 MH2). It's a mess right now.

    There is no LHR-KUL for today but there'll be 3 MH LHR-KUL tomorrow (if nothing gets canceled) 😆  with MH1 already on a pre-emptive delay (probably due to crew rest or late arrival of aircraft, who knows)

    KUL-LHR flights departing 13/5
    MH4: Canceled
    MH2D: 23:00 - 05:25+1
    MH2: 23:30 - 06:17+1

    LHR-KUL flights departing 14/5
    MH3D: 07:55 - 0410+1
    MH3: 11:00 - 07:15+1
    MH1: 22:30 - 18:45+1

  24. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Chris Tan said:

    I wonder if she knows what they're serving for coffee in J. Nescafe Gold Blend is a joke..

    Maybe they'll upgrade to Old Town Ipoh white coffee in their new 339s 🤣. I seriously hope they will install espresso machine on their 339s. I don't think their 359s Business Suite has espresso machine either.

    And they need to bring back alcohol menu. Much easier than to ask cabin crew what's available and sometimes they are clueless what's available.

  25. Posted · Edited by Craig · Report reply

    7 hours ago, Robert said:

    you are about 30 mins ahead of me haha

    Was looking at it after somebody posted on FB: "My friend on a returning trip from Nairobi with a transit at DOH with MH just received flight cancellation notification a few hours ago. I assume aircraft affected is 9MMAH and probably been used for NRT"

    MAH is trying to do both MH161 and 165 at the same time 🤣 I hope your friend was re-accommodated on QR. 

    And tonight’s MH2 is canceled. With MH4 departing around the same time as previously scheduled MH2.

    At this rate, they might as well just renumber MH2 as MH4 and MH4 as MH2. Why are they canceling delaying all their flights by 9-12 hours when it’s just easier to cancel. Now they have to deal with three 359 rebooking. 
     

    MAB is now flying as MH160 to DOH (there are no more 359 available now) as we speak. This is complete CF now. 

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