reezal

Malaysia Airlines helps mum, child BACK HOME: Infant had been prevented from boarding flight home by AirAsia because of 'health risks'KUALA LUMPUR: MALAYSIA Airlines has flown home a mother and her 14-month-old daughter who were prevented from boarding an AirAsia flight back home from Vietnam. Izan Suhaila Mohd Ali, 36, and her daughter, Mariam Sofea Mohd Reza, were held back by AirAsia staff at the Ho Chi Minh airport on Saturday night after the latter was suspected of having chicken pox and deemed a health risk to other passengers. Malaysia Airlines group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Malaysia Airlines learned about Izan's predicament from Tourism Malaysia. "As it is a standard procedure for all passengers with symptoms of contagious disease to get a fit-to-fly certification from a doctor, we made the decision to take Mariam to a doctor. This is to ensure that no one passenger puts the health of another passenger at risk." He said Malaysia Airlines staff picked up the two from the hotel they were staying to a clinic. "A doctor examined the baby and confirmed she was no longer contagious. It was confirmed that the black spots she had were actually dry scabs. "Immediately after that, our staff worked on preparing travel documents for Izan, Mariam and two other relatives. They were booked on flight MH759 that departed Ho Chi Minh so that they did not have to spend another night in Ho Chi Minh and incur more costs." He said Malaysia Airlines staff based there drove the family back to the airport from the hotel for a quick check-in and they boarded the flight and departed Ho Chi Minh at 4.40pm yesterday. Jauhari said that the safety of passengers had always been a priority and thus, all measures were taken to help Izan and her baby, while at the same time, ensuring other passengers' health were not put at risk. "The ability of our team in Ho Chi Minh to act beyond their normal duties was praiseworthy. "They went out of their way in displaying a true spirit of compassion and empathy. I would like to thank all the staff involved in helping the mother and her daughter." Meanwhile, AirAsia Bhd chief executive officer Aireen Omar said the company had exercised its responsibility to ensure that the safety and wellbeing of its passengers were taken care of. It also reserved the right to deny boarding passengers suffering from communicable or chronic diseases at its discretion. "AirAsia adheres to global health regulations and standards in which a guest with chicken pox may only travel five days after the first symptom (rash) appears and must possess a valid medical certificate or doctors's letter to confirm that the guest is fit to travel," she said in a statement. Aireen said that the guidelines, established by the World Health Organisation, were to avoid jeopardising the health of the other 175 guests on board the flight. Aireen said AirAsia's ground representatives had provided the necessary assistance to the mother and her child and made arrangements to fly them back, as well as two accompanying adults, for free once the child was deemed medically fit to fly. She said they were offered hotel and transportation arrangements. Izan's sister, Norhamiza Mohd Ali, 53, had claimed that the AirAsia ground staff only dropped Izan and her baby off at a nearby taxi stand and did little to help other than agreeing to have her sent to a hospital or hotel. Norhamiza also said fellow passengers at the waiting area of the airport donated money to Izan after witnessing her predicament. Izan's case was highlighted by TV3 executive producer Mazidul Akmal Sidik, who witnessed the incident, on his blog on Sunday. He said he tried pleading with the airline staff to reconsider their decision but to no avail. SOURCE: http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/malaysia-airlines-helps-mum-child-1.283107

Zest Air stopped flying to KLIA late last year if i'm not mistaken. So are they resuming flights to KUL?

QZ is relaunching DPS-BKI 3 times a week starting 27th July 2013. Hope it would last long this time around. AirAsia to Increase Perth - Bali Flights; Launch Bali - Sabah AirAsia Indonesia is to increase its flight frequency between Perth and Bali through an extra daily service, bringing the total up to four flights per day. The additional daily frequency will be operated by a brand new Airbus A320 effective 1 July 2013. Dharmadi, President Director of AirAsia Indonesia, said, “The demand for flights between Perth and Bali has been exceptionally strong since we first launched the route in June 2009, recording an average load factor of 85%. We are adding frequency to meet the rapidly growing demand from business and leisure travellers alike.” Flight QZ 8419 departs Perth at 10:35 local time and lands in Bali at 14:20 local time. The return flight QZ 8418 departs Bali at 06:20 local time and arrives in Perth at 10:00 local time. From Bali, passengers can continue their journey onwards to exotic domestic destinations such as Jakarta, Bandung, Makassar, Yogyakarta and Surabaya, as well as international destinations like Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Bangkok and the newly-introduced Kota Kinabalu. “AirAsia is committed to ensure ‘Now Everyone Can Fly’, anywhere and anytime. While other airlines offer higher fares during school holidays, AirAsia celebrates the holiday season by offering all-inclusive fares from Perth to Bali from as low as A$159 one way. There is no better time than now to plan a getaway to Bali with your loved ones!” added Dharmadi. In line with its business expansion to Australia, AirAsia Indonesia is also introducing three weekly flights between Bali and the capital of Sabah, Kota Kinabalu. Situated in the Northwest coast of Borneo Island, Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu is an ultimate holiday destination. The city caters to a wide range of interests; from shopping, mouth-watering culinary hunting, island hopping, to climbing Mount Kinabalu for the more adventurous and brave travellers. “Starting 27 July 2013, passengers can conveniently connect from Bali to Kota Kinabalu from as low as $42 all-inclusive per way,” said Dharmadi. Booking period for the special fares lasts until 28 April 2013 for travel between 1 July and 27 July 2013, for Perth and Kota Kinabalu respectively, all the way to 30 April 2014. SOURCE: http://www.asiatraveltips.com/news13/234-AirAsia.shtml

Another new airline to KLIA soon. Regent Airways will be the fourth carrier to ply Dhaka-Kuala Lumpur after MH, BG and Bangladesh United Airways. I dunno why AK couldn't make this route work. Regent Airways to fly abroad in June Regent Airways is going to add two Boeing 737-700 aircraft to its fleet next month with plans to launch international flights by early June. The carrier wants to open its first flight to Kuala Lumpur and later to Bangkok, Singapore, and Hong Kong, said Imran Asif, chief executive of the local private airline. “By end July, we will have operations in all these four destinations,” he said yesterday. The airline also wants to start flights to Kolkata within July. Owned by Chittagong based Habib Group, Regent will get delivery of the first 126-seater from Goodyear airport of Arizona, USA. The airline leased the plane from International Lease Finance Corporation for a period of six years, said a statement yesterday. The aircraft underwent extensive pre-delivery maintenance checks at the Goodyear airport, said the statement. The airline received permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh (CAAB) last year to launch international flights. Last month, a team from CAAB’s airworthiness division and Regent Airways visited the US for a technical inspection and compliance audit for the aircraft’s import and registration in Bangladesh. With configuration for business and economy class, the plane is equipped with modern avionics for flight safety and fuel-saving winglets, said the statement. “It will be the youngest Boeing 737 ever registered in Bangladesh,” the statement said, adding that the next aircraft is expected to join Regent’s fleet by the end of May. The relatively younger carrier operates flights on domestic routes — Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Cox’s Bazar and Jessore. Since inception in November 2010, the airline carried more than five lakh passengers on domestic routes, said Asif. SOURCE: http://www.thedailystar.net/beta2/news/regent-airways-to-fly-abroad-in-june/

This is really really bad for Lion Air Grup's image and their other ventures (or future ventures).

Don't you think that it's good that KLIA main terminal/satellite is crowded and busy now. Last time they were lots of people here and at other forums were bitching that KLIA was somewhat a white elephant, too empty, boring, under-utilized and stuffs like that. Though personally, I prefer KLIA to be like when it was first opened many years ago, it was very spacious. I hated all these kiosks ala KL sentral that they have now.

The batik tail looks nice and classy, But i cannot stand the Batik typefont. Looks so amateurish to me.

Interesting! Things are definitely getting better and better this year 2013. I truly hope Firefly will revive its jet operations to join the fight!

Spicejet to start Madurai-KL flight? Indian low-cost carrier, Spicejet, is likely to commence flight operations to Kuala Lumpur from the Madurai Airport, which was recently upgraded as an international airport. The flights are expected to be operational by year-end, subject to necessary approvals being sought from authorities from both Malaysia and India. An industry source close to the deal said Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd had engaged with several Indian airlines with the intention of wooing them to operate flights to Kuala Lumpur, and as a result, Spicejet had shown immense level of interest on Malaysia and its prospects. "Other than Spicejet, the other potential candidate is Indigo," the source told Bernama on condition of anonymity. Currently, only Air India Express operates direct flights to Malaysia while Jet Airways ceased operations into Malaysia but continued with its code-sharing for the Kuala Lumpur-Chennai sector with Malaysia Airlines. Besides the flag carrier, Air India, other major airlines in India are Indigo, Spicejet, GoAir, Jet Lite, Jet Airways. Two of India's fast expanding airlines are Indigo and Spicejet. Madurai is the third largest city in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with an approximate population of 1.5 million people. Madurai is also regarded as an important city of Hindu temples, as well as, an industrial and educational hub of the Southern Tamil Nadu.-- Bernama SOURCE: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20130321110726/Article/index_html

Good news for KLIA. After Malindo, Thai Smile, Air France & Turkish Airlines, PAL will be the latest airline to join the bandwagon. PAL will resume MNL-KUL starting March 31st. To date, there are 3 Filipino carriers operating at KLIA - Cebu Pacific, AirPhil Express & AirAsia Philippines. PAL to resume Kuala Lumpur flights next month By: Darwin G. Amojelar, InterAksyon.com February 20, 2013 4:18 PM MANILA - After more than a decade's absence, Philippine Airlines (PAL) will resume flights to Kuala Lumpur starting next month. In a filing with the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), PAL requested the reallocation of 900 seat entitlements to Kuala Lumpur in line with the Confidential Memorandum of Understanding (CMOU) Manila signed on June 11, 2011. Flights to the Malaysian capital will resume on March 31, following a Monday-Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule. PAL initially will use its Airbus 319 for the route, but would shift to an A321 starting June 1 when daily flights to Kuala Lumpur begin. At present, PAL flies its passengers to Kuala Lumpur thrice daily through a code share agreement with Malaysian Airlines. A PAL source said the flag carrier stopped flying to Malaysia in early 2000 because of "commercial reasons," adding that the resumption of the service is in response to passenger clamor. To date, only Cebu Pacific and Airphil Express fly to Malaysia out of Manila. SOURCE: http://www.interaksyon.com/business/55483/pal-to-resume-kuala-lumpur-flights-next-month

I think Malindo Air, like Lion Air, positioned themselves as a hybrid carrier. Heard that Malindo Air will do their proving flights this month.

I don't know what's wrong with these wikipedia 'polices' who kept on removing almost any new airlines inputs especially on the KLIA, KKIA and Penang Airport wikipedia pages. Many times they removed Air France, Ethiopian and the more recent one Turkish Airlines, saying the sources were not reliable enough. I think if they have the time to google, they would have discovered tons of reliable news/sources regarding that.

Exciting news. Thai Airways subsidiary Thai Smile will fly to KLIA. Thai Smile will fly HKT-KUL 4 times a week. Thai Smile will be the 4th airlines to serve HKT-KUL after MH, AK and QR. THAI Smile Plans India / Malaysia Service Launch in S13by JL Update at 1025GMT 31JAN13 As per 31JAN13 Amadeus timetable listing, THAI Smile plans to launch 4 International routes to India and Malaysia from 31MAR13. However, all routes listed below are currently not available for reservation, as they are not being loaded in THAI’s inventory at time this post goes to press. Bangkok – Ahmedabad 2 weekly TG765 BKK1930 – 2300AMD 320 37 TG766 AMD2359 – 0620+1BKK 320 37 Phuket – Delhi 2 weekly TG761 HKT2205 – 0055+1DEL 320 14 TG762 DEL0155 – 0755HKT 320 25 Phuket – Kuala Lumpur 4 weekly TG771 HKT0915 – 1135KUL 320 x147 TG772 KUL1225 – 1250HKT 320 x147 Phuket – Mumbai 2 weekly TG763 HKT2235 – 0115+1BOM 320 25 TG764 BOM0230 – 0830HKT 320 36 SOURCE: http://airlineroute.net/2013/01/31/tg7-s13/

Now it's time for Colombo to be scrapped. Quite surprising. Thought they're doing quite well on this route. AirAsia to scrap daily KL-Colombo flight Frills-free airline, AirAsia, has scrapped its daily flight from Kuala Lumpur to Colombo and vice-versa effective Feb 26 due to commercial reasons. Affected passengers will be offered options to avoid any inconvenience that might arise due to the flight termination, the low-cost carrier said. "Every affected passenger will be notified via their e-mail and short messaging service (SMS). "AirAsia strongly urges passengers to keep their e-mail addresses and mobile numbers with their country code prefix updated in their AirAsia member profiles to ensure the airline can reach them to assist them," the budget airline said in a statement. It said affected passengers have a choice to move their flights to an earlier date to or from Kuala Lumpur or Colombo without any extra charges and subject to availability of seats or they will be offered a credit shell for the value that they paid with a validity of three months or a full refund. Passengers can also contact AirAsia's Customer Care Team via social media by tweeting to twitter.com/AskAirAsia for further enquiries about the route termination. -- Bernama SOURCE: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20130121172523/Article/index_html

Another exciting news. GA will be flying to Penang starting June 1st. Good news for PEN. Medan – Penang eff 01JUN13 PLANNED NEW Daily CRJ1000 service. Reservation not available at present time GA810 MES0645 – 0835PEN CRK D GA811 PEN0925 – 0915MES CRK D SOURCE: http://airlineroute.net/2013/01/21/ga-bkk-s13/