JuliusWong

I don't think they have any more A320s left. I only saw 9M-DAB in storage in KUL recently, not sure if the owner has any new customer lined up. 9M-DAG is in airasia.com livery but stored beside Gate J4.

MYAirline secures investor from the Middle East - sources https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2024/01/12/myairline-secures-investor-from-the-middle-east---sources KUALA LUMPUR: MYAirline Sdn Bhd has secured and signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) in late December 2023 with an investor from the Middle East, sources said. Without citing the name of the investor, sources hoped MYAirline could now work towards resuming operations by the middle of this year. "The first action item hopefully is the payment of salaries and refunding passengers,” a source told Bernama. As the new investor is now on board, the airline is believed to have applied to the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom) for a conditional air service licence (ASL), thereafter uplifting the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) before obtaining a full ASL to operate. Bernama contacted Mavcom about the airline’s ASL application and was told that Mavcom would only initiate the evaluation process upon receipt of a complete submission. Transport minister: 51pc of MYAirline must be owned by Malaysian company, despite interests from the Middle East https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/01/12/transport-minister-51pc-of-myairline-must-be-owned-by-malaysian-company-despite-interests-from-the-middle-east/112024 PUTRAJAYA, Jan 12 — Transport Minister Anthony Loke today said that any new buyers for troubled MYAirline must fulfil several criteria before they can purchase the airline. He said even if they have the money to buy the airlines entirely as per local law the majority owner or 51 per cent of the company's ownership must still go to a Malaysian company. “We are not sure what the proposal is but we are meeting them today, shortly,” he told reporters when met at the Ministry of Transport (MoT) headquarters in Putrajaya. “We want to know what are the proposals, and the status right now and our priority is whatever application they make, a few conditions must be imposed if they want to restart the operations. They must make sure all refunds previously must be made and whatever deals offered to the staff must be paid. If they meet these two conditions we can talk. Loke to meet MYAirline after carrier reportedly secures Middle East investor https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2024/01/12/loke-to-meet-myairline-after-carrier-reportedly-secures-middle-east-investor/ The payment of salaries and passenger reimbursement will be the new investors’ top priority, reports Bernama. PUTRAJAYA: Transport minister Loke Siew Fook will meet troubled low-cost carrier MYAirline Sdn Bhd after it reportedly signed a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) late last month with an investor from the Middle East. “I’ll be meeting them (MYAirline) shortly. (I want to) hear from them first… I’m not sure what the proposal is,” Loke told reporters here today. “There are a few conditions that will be imposed if they want to restart operations. They must make sure all their passengers are refunded and they must make sure whatever (is owed) to their staff must be paid. “If they can fulfill these two conditions, only then can we start to talk.” MYAirline abruptly suspended operations on Oct 12 last year after citing “severe financial challenges”, 11 months after it took to the skies.

One of the reasons is because Mainland China tourists are now avoiding Thailand due to safety issues i.e. the recent shooting at Siam Paragon shopping mall killed two PRC citizens, this is the must-go shopping mall for affluent PRC tourists. Then quite a number of them were kidnapped by their own fellow countrymen in Thailand to Golden Triangle/ Myanmar borders to be scammer. Also with slowing China economy, the PRC tourists are now picky. They will either spend their money locally (as promoted heavily by local PRC governments) or if they are going overseas, they just want to spend their money on somewhere safer. Singapore and Malaysia are their top choices now in the region. If I recall correctly, after the shopping mall shooting, many Mainland China-based airlines cancelled their charter flight. https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2023/11/27/ten-chinese-airlines-cancel-thai-flights-for-december-january-amid-low-tourist-numbers

AirAsia X relaunches Jaipur with 4x weekly flight. AirAsia X first launched Jaipur in November 2017 also with 4x weekly service, with the first flight landing at Jaipur International Airport on February 5, 2018 and was dropped in March 2020 due to capacity management and COVID 19.

Was trying to spot for her when I was KUL yesterday, but could not find her, did a check. She was stuck at Sydney due to some reason on January 7, 2024, this led to SYD-AKL leg being cancelled. Knock-on effect till today January 9, 2024. Pretty messed up schedule for a soon-to-be abandoned route.

Love KUL for having all these exotic airlines. I think the maintenance is jointly undertaken by IA with Boeing team. so we are safe in this aspect.

All the web spinning and creative accounting just to justify the so-called merger/ "one ASEAN airline" . I hope Tassapon or the Thailand side does not agree to this merger. Their (Thai AirAsia) short haul operation is the most profitable among all the AirAsia entities with very consistent profit since its founding. Second is AirAsia Malaysia, the rest of them are either having anemic profit or suffering loss, only appear to be "profitable" due creative accounting. With Rias Asmat moving out now and appointment of two Deputy CEOs, we shall see how this new organisation structure brings.

MAG's aim is to operate Firefly in silo, because there are many certifications and procedures that FY is currently lacking and MAG does not want to spend or reluctant to spend money on attaining the across the board certification, cause you need the recruit new/ qualified personnel for those, new equipment kits etc. If they were to sell FY/MH together as connecting partner/OW partner, customers would expect comprehensive services vv. Will create a mess (a good/bad mess, depending on each individual point of view). Sounds like early SQ/MI days, the weird thing is SQ closed down MI, CX closed down KA, MH went against the mainstream. LOL! I believe MAG has a greater plan for FY to establish BKI as another hub for East Asian routes, fighting with AK on this front, and as the jet operation takes off in SZB, they will leave turboprop operation, leaving on PEN and BKI as jet hubs. MH will eventually return to SZB, if the plan ever materialized.

New addition for AirAsia Group: A321-211(F) MSN 1023 9M-TLB AirAsia delivery 20 December 2023 HAK-KUL, Teleport cs ex VP-CBL Source: https://www.skyliner-aviation.de/regdb.main?LC=nav4&page=3 Ex-Aer Lingus EI-CPG

This is the fleet plan I posted in another thread based on Izham's recent interview with various media.

Aircraft involved is 9M-XXZ, delivered in April 2015.

Yes, they will be getting new A321neos in 2024. The current AirAsia Malaysia fleet are all leased, therefore the lessors will make the final decision to scrap them or otherwise. Given the many faults and the cycle that AirAsia has put those A320ceo through, highly likely some of them will head for scrappers. Not worth the money to reactivate them. Mostly are 9M-AF*, AH* and AQ* which were the first three series to enter service. The oldest current active A320ceo 9M-AFE is now fast approaching 18th birthday. Only four AF* series are still in AK's fleet, AFD, AFE, AFF, and AFV, the rest are gone for good.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH53 KIX-KUL suffered a suspected engine failure yesterday December 23, 2023 and was diverted to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Aircraft involved A330-323 9M-MTH. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/mh53#33584cb9 Source Last night MH52 KUL-KIX was heavily delayed. Was to depart at 10:40pm last night, but only departed today December 24, 2023 at 5:21am, arriving at KIX at 12:05pm, instead of 5:20am With this incident, MH now has two A330-323s grounded 9M-MTH and 9M-MTN, during travel peak season. A330-223 9M-MTU and A350-900 9M-MAC remain grounded. Hope they will be back in service soon.

Malaysia Airlines today December 22, 2023 rolls out new uniform for male cabin crew. Subtle changes only. Lighter grey colour coat with double button and long pants. Brighter blue in the inside. Cutting and materials are different as well. Vest is still there.

Batik Air Malaysia is cancelling their flights left, right and center yet they are expanding as crazy. Customer service is barely in existence. I wonder how did they obtain all these approvals. And with only two A330-300s in fleet, I wonder how can they do Jeddah, Tashkent and Istanbul concurrently. Dubai is now flown with B738MAX 8, good grief for the cabin crew. Dayong is the old name for ZhangJiaJie, although its main international airport Zhangjiajie Hehua International Airport retains its IATA Code: DYG. I literally need to google where is DYG. LOL!

Yes indeed, Philippines Airlines (PR) currently flies two different type of A330-300 configurations (309pax and 363pax). With that, I would like to make an additional note though, although I have stated the 363 configuration as domestic configuration, it is also used on their Middle East run, which has high traffic due to Overseas Filipinos Workers (OFWs). If the airframe is deployed on international flight, the Premium Economy Class is not offered, only J class and Y class. Originally it has 414 all-Y seats. PR took delivery of these eight A330-300s in 2013 as part of their strategy to fight Cebu Pacific (5J)'s 430pax A330-300s. In 2017, PR had a change in management with previous owner Lucio Tan gaining control again, and decided to reconfigure the interiors. The J class is 18 Sogerma Equinox 3D, as opposed to Thomson Aero Seating's Vantage XL in others (also in 9M-XBF and 9M-XBG) Source: https://pointsboys.com/review/pal-a330-business-class/

From grapevine, quite a few of those older A320-200ceo AirAsia stored at KUL are no longer worthy for re-activating due to age and many faults. Explains why they took in three/ four ex-MYAirlines A320ceos.

New additions to Indonesia AirAsia and Thai AirAsia X Airbus A320-214 MSN 4745 PK-AZY Indonesia AirAsia delivery 19-20 Dec 2023 TPA-BGR-KEF, N-reg ex N216FR Airbus A330-343 MSN 1531 HS-XTN Thai AirAsia X delivery 19 Dec 2023 CHR-DMK ex 9H-SMF Source: https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/11164620, https://www.skyliner-aviation.de/regdb.main?LC=nav4&page=1 NOTE: This is the third ex-Philippines Airlines (PR) A330-343 in AirAsia X Group fleet, but the first in PR domestic configuration seating C18W27Y323 = 363 in total. The other two 9M-XBF and 9M-XBG are in international configuration seating C18W24Y267 = 309 in total.

AeroLOPA has updated their Malaysia Airlines's page with both A350-900 seat maps.

To put a note here, Thai AirAsia X is looking to add another 11 A330 by 2028 to their current fleet of 6 A330 to expand its route network, bringing the total fleet to 17. https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news/131478-court-clears-revised-thai-airasia-x-rehabilitation-plan

I would think Thai AirAsia X (XJ) has better prospect with Almaty than AirAsia X Malaysia (D7). I will give D7 16 months top before they drop the route. LOL!

The whole drama reminds me of Brazil's Itapemirim Transportes Aéreos. Also started by a bus company, a crony of the previous President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, expanded their fleet quickly by adding 20 A320ceos in less than a year of operation (only six managed to be delivered), selling tickets way below cost prices, then came the collapses, supposedly new investors bailed after looking into their account books. First flight June 29, 2021, last flight December 17, 2021. Finally officially collapse on May 5, 2022 when the local regulator revoked its air operator's certificate.

Yes, that could be a factor too. Proliferation of luggage brands due to travel explosion right before COVID, so many cheap brands in the market. On the other side of the coin, checking in a Rimowa and expect it to come out spotless is definitely something LOL (no offense meant to all Rimowa users).