Craig

I wonder if HR ever ventures out to see that even 3k isn't enough to hire wait staff at some restaurants around KL. Hundreds of engineers leaving MAG is quite a big issue, no?

The delays continue: MH123 to SYD, 7/11, 2+ hours MH388 to PVG, 8/11, 3+ hours (still on ground) MH164 to DOH, 8/11, 3+ hours (there goes all connections at DOH) and they are using the aircraft from MH140 MH133/145 to AKL, 7/11, 2-4 hours MH172 to DEL, 7/11, 3 hours

If Raya/Kargo Express goes under, it wouldn't go viral because it doesn't affect a lot of people. People will just be like "those airlines exist?". No one even spoke about MyJet 😂 Not even worth reporting in the news media.

Severe delays on the 333 flights again. If you look at 9M-MTK/MTO delays these last few days, it’s ridiculous. So much so that MH 66 to ICN on 6/11 was delayed overnight awaiting arrival from MEL (MH129). AKL/DPS/PER are all delayed pretty bad as well.

That makes sense. Because there are so many airline popping out of Indonesia that I don't even know it existed. My friend who used to work in Jakarta told me if he can't get there on Garuda, he's not going because of the safety records of some airlines (some exceptions given to Indonesia Air Asia and Batik Air, lower on the list compared to GA but it's not on his no-fly list).

What are the owners/investors going to do with the 5 aircraft if they can't register it for the airline tho? Are they going to register it to a shell company and then transfer it over? Idling 5 aircraft on the ground whilst waiting for regulatory approval doesn't sound prudent.

So no news about Japan granting Malaysia a daytime slot at HND with Japan PM Kishida's official visit to Malaysia? 🤭 Maybe from one of those sanctioned countries slot (IIRC they have 2 daytime slots).

Nice! Will MH secure the second 359 from SK as well? It looks like there'll be another 359 destination from 9M-MAH. Any clues to where it'll go (I assume MEL will get 9M-MAH since they zeroed out F for MH148/149)? Or will it be used for the second daily DOH flight?

That's where a new terminal comes in? I thought I read somewhere that a new terminal will be built by WCT to accommodate jets up to 320/737.

It's not unique to MH. You see them everywhere in KL hospitality industry now.

On my recent international flight with MH, I noticed that the cabin crew put their hands over their chest (like a normal Malaysian thank you) and then bow at the front of the cabin whilst the purser was making the thank you announcement. I saw them doing it in Y too. Is this a new thing? I haven't seen something like outside of Japanese and Korean carriers.

Rights are there. Slots are a different issue. MH's European arrivals also coincides with other intercontinental arrivals from the Americas and Africa. Paris is hosting the 2024 Olympic Games and Qantas recently announced their return to Paris via Perth. I'd imagine KL has higher demand to/from Paris compared to Perth and way more beyond connection opportunities as well. As Chris mentioned, there's a huge hole in MH's European network. I can't imagine European travelers are keen on transiting at LHR to fly with MH. Doesn't help when there are no huge oneworld hubs in the center of Europe as they are all on the fringes of Europe. France (CDG), Germany (FRA/MUC), Italy (MXP but MY doesn't have rights to MXP, only FCO) are probably good cities to serve along with the Netherlands (doesn't really work for most carriers, but it should for MH) to fill in the void in Europe plus IST.

I don't know if jet operations at SZB T3 is happening anytime soon. The ramp area seems very small and I don't know if it can accommodate OD 737, FY ATR/737, soon-ish SKS' E2, and possibly MH and AK narrow bodies at the same time. I thought the plan was to build a new terminal for jet operations.

With AMS’ “green cap” in the news today, I am curious if MH can even get slots at AMS if they wanted to resume AMS. Airlines with historical slots will receive 3.1% slots less for Summer 24 whilst airlines without historical slots will not receive slots at all. Is MH considered an airline with historical slot? Maybe it’s time for MH to fly back into CDG, FRA and the likes to preserve slots for future. I’ve read somewhere that ICN is getting close to full as well. And HND (either MH cant make it work or they don’t have a slot). AMS is sort of unprecedented as they are basically barring any new entrants to AMS.

Looking at next summer schedule, we have WY increasing from 8x to 14x weekly, EY from 7x to 14x, and a good chance that QR will continue its 14x into summer. TK is already 14x. I guess there must be quite a bit of EU-MY demand with that much increase for next summer. Either that or there'll be an oversupply and MH (and KUL with EU carriers) will probably lose out again. KU already waved their white flag at KUL. Will the 339 work comfortably year round to AKL or perhaps (seasonal) CHC?

It appears that MH has "reintroduced" MH Saver awards. Didn't look like they changed anything other than adding destinations like TRV, COK, ATQ, AMD to the list but not DOH. Chinese destinations like FOC, CKG, NKG, and more recently XMN are all still in there. Intern must have not got the memo on the Chinese cities.

Quite a few news out with MH from Captain Izham's speech at CAPA meeting in KL earlier today. MAG is on track for a full year net profit for 2023 Europe? Interesting. I am curious if they plan to return to Europe next summer (if they do, now it's the time to announce it because most airlines are already announcing their major intercontinental additions expansion now). China is not a surprise. Despite what they announced, they can't even keep PKX, CAN and PVG daily (second daily MH386/387 barely flew). MAG will issue RFP for new narrowbody in Q1 2024 I am curious if it will include some A220s or Embraer E2 for SZB ops. Or maybe A220/E2 for KUL's thin regional routes. There might have been a lost in translation somewhere. The Edge article quoted "at least 35 wide body" by 2028. Interesting that no mention of the rumored 9M-MAH ex-SK 359 was made. Interestingly enough, MH's MEL flights is zeroed out in F but seat map still remains as MH 359. I assume some of those 359s will be used for Europe expansion since the 339s can do East Asia, ME, and ANZ? There isn't a huge capacity difference between 359 and 339 and hopefully, they will share the same cabin. I understand that most carriers are using their aircraft at near max utilization rate, but perhaps they can pad their schedule more for certain routes e.g. AKL, PER, CAN. Those flights are consistently delayed and it's an unfair burden for the ground crew to deal with this. Maybe increase their turnaround time to 1:30 or schedule a "longer" flight. The knockoff effect is of course they might miss minimum connecting time at KUL/outstation if they do that and can't sell that connection. An early arrival is always appreciated (and on a separate note, MH flight crew need to be a bit more specific when giving inflight announcement). I was on MH recently and we were landing about 20 minutes early (yay!!) but the captain will always say "we are landing on schedule at 8:00". How about changing it to "subject to ATC delays, we are expected to arrive 20 minutes ahead of schedule and at the gate a few minutes after". Another beef/pet's peeve with MH. Don't make the boarding time on the boarding pass an hour before departure but instead show the exact boarding time. No one knows when boarding will commence with MH that way. It can't be boarding 60 mins prior to departure for a flight to PEN (and on another note, please reduce the check in cutoff time for domestic from 60 to 45 minutes, or even better down to 30!).

AKL/PER (MH126/127) are hopeless. MH126 already departs around 2AM-ish. And sometimes it's delayed till 4-5AM thereby throwing away all the morning connections from KUL. They really need to pad their schedule more if their flight keeps delaying. What's the point of scheduling flights when most of their PER/AKL flights are delayed and ground staff are left with the burden to rebook passengers with missed connections or deal with frustrated delayed passengers. Looking at their schedule, 1:15 is very optimistic to turn around a plane. Even at best at KUL, they probably need around 1:30 to turn around a 330.

Did OD downsized their SZB operations significantly? I was looking for flights and it appears that they are quite prone to cancelations (they will sell you a ticket but cancel the flight)? I checked SZB's history and it seems like they only have 2 flights at SZB yesterday. 1 to KBR and BTH each. And today there are only 4 flights (KBR, PEN, LGK, and BTH).

To be fair, I used it very recently and the speed was decent (before it was open to all). Much faster than say TK which is unusable most of the time because it's so slow. MH wasn't strict with the 100 Mbps limit back then. You could always get new vouchers from the crew. I think you mean MH 140/141? MH 122/123 is redeye ex-KUL and daytime ex-SYD. From the look of it, it appeared as tho it's tech out of KUL on MH140. MH should know better not to delay this flight too much as SYD has a curfew and they'd have to cancel or delay the flight until the curfew has passed. MTN was sitting on the ground for the whole night on the 30th. If they really have to delay a flight, most likely it's one of those morning greater China flights that will be delayed rather than SYD/MEL/AKL. SYD will be the worst option due to curfew. MH715 was delayed by over 7 hours once or twice in October, sometimes waiting for MH161 from DOH. And today's MH 715 is already delayed by 1.75 hours. Maybe they are waiting for pax/aircraft on MH 195 from BOM which is running about 2 hours late. Yes.

MH really need a new marketing agency. How can such huge news be posted on a small hard to find press release page? Nothing on socials, front page of their website etc.? If you are lazy to click, MH will begin offering free WiFi too all pax including Economy beginning tomorrow (01 NOV).

And for some, the 350 means they could potentially send the ex-SU 359 (TC-LGI/J/K/L) to KUL like they did yesterday. Comes with a much better J class with enclosed suites and proper PEY. But more importantly. TK is also making KUL 2x 77W for the most part of NW23 schedule.

Is one of MH's 330 out or are they over optimistic with their 330 schedule? It seems like 1-2 330 flights are severely delayed for the past few weeks (not by 1-2 hours but sometimes up to 6-9 hours). e.g. today's MH 366 to TPE is delayed by 6.5 hours, yesterday was MH 376 to CAN etc.

August and September is long gone and we are halfway through October. Aeroroutes is indicating further delays to the 7M8 with first commercial flight scheduled for 01NOV23. Will MH receive its first 7M8 within the next week or so? Thankfully MH management is not relying solely on VFR and MY-IN traffic. Those secondary cities are marketed for beyond KUL connections too. Not many people wants to fly say PER-KUL-ATQ on a 737 all the way, a journey that's >10h and >5,000 miles. That's equivalent to a KUL-IST as the crow flies. As cheap as OD can get, I'd not fly them on KUL-PER-AKL in Y or in J. But if they can get people to fly this all the way, good for them.

I’d have taken advantage of MH’s fare sale to the 3 newly launched Indian cities (looking at Amritsar specifically). I’d have booked one (it’s really cheap for business class, RM2,000 round trip) if it weren’t for the 738 planned for this trip (or god forbid, swapped to 73H). At 2,653 miles each way, that’s just a hairline shorter than KUL-PKX. I’ll go to Kochi instead. Slightly more expensive but a city that is also on my list. MH really need to consider installing better seats on these 5+ hours “regional” flights and a red eye on the way back.