KC Sim

You guys are so funny ... love the jokes relating to 11, especially Chapter 11. So do I gather that the airline's name is not yet confirmed? What does NN Aviation stands for - what is NN? Surprised that there is no Melaka-Singapore flight ... would have thought that one a potential business if priced right. Keep those jokes coming - they help to lower blood pressure! KC Sim

Perhaps, if Boeing had the B737RE firmly on offer, the bulk of the order would probably have gone to them. Having seen them operate such a strong Boeing fleet, I interpret their order of A320s and A320Neos as an insurance in case Boeing fails to launch the B737RE. A good strategic move by Airbus to launch the A320 Family Neos ... KC Sim

Besides great spotting from the rooftop of Queens Garden Resort, there is good food nearby. The Phad See Yew midway through the Lat Krabang Soi 7 is absolutely wonderful - as Vernon Loh could vouch for ... and outside at the main road is where some of the best rice and noodle dishes could be had. The crispy pork here is truly one of the best in the Kingdom of Thailand .... hahaha Prompong could surely remember the huge portion we shared a little more than a week ago. I am afraid it might be a bit of a challenge to get halal catering in Thailand ... maybe Prompong could help to see if there is any around this area. This would be useful for our Muslim Mwingers as they consider coming to BKK for Mwings' 7th Anniversary. KC Sim

Interesting to see the impact pattern .... one could easily tell where the greatest impact on the nose and on the cockpit windscreen. Wonder what the leading edges of the wings and tails look like. I remember some years back when part of the South African Airways fleet was "attacked" by hails ... and left holes in some of the wings. Having personally experienced hailstones, I must admit that besides being very very cold when it rains hailstones, the impact of even small marble-sized hailstones is quite painful. But quite a miracle watching them coming down, bouncing all over the floor and not melting for quite a while. KC Sim

Well-worded letter with strong emphasis on the mistakes that have taken place. I am certain that the heat is now on the people behind this project to quickly find solutions to the problems - if this had not already been done. KC Sim

The transit time in Singapore for passengers travelling from Melbourne to Beijing is quite ok ... but for those flying from Beijing to Melboune, the transit time in Singapore is almost 12 hours! Changi Airport and the Singapore Tourism Board will have to lay out more coaches for the complimentary city tour for these people. KC Sim In a very warmped way of doing things. Jetstar has issued an invitation to the media to attend a press conference this Friday ... HINTING that there is a very exciting announcement pertaining to a new destination from Singapore. And today - two days ahead of that press conference - it sent out a press release about special fares for the Melbourne - Singapore - Beijing service!!! Talk about being shot in the leg by a gun held by oneself ... wonder what is left for Jetstar's CEO Bruce Buchanan to announce on Friday. KC Sim

A pair of ATR72s in China Southern Airlines colours have landed in Subang on Saturday night (9 July) after a long flight from Urumqi-Xian-Guangzhou-Bangkok-Singapore. Interestingly, although both would have flown over Malaysia (and possibly Kuala Lumpur) enroute from Bangkok to Singapore, their final destination was Subang. It is probable that these will emerge as Nok Air's new fleet addition and I am given the understanding that another two ATR72s may also be arriving in Subang soon for the same destiny. KC Sim

Bangkok would be a top-rate aviation spotting and photographing venue for the 7th Anniversary of Malaysianwings. I have just returned from four days there and I am absolutely thrilled with my catch ... and as much as I have already shot, I am more keen than ever before to return. If the numbers signing up for the anniversary celebrations in June 2012, we might be able to book a good portion of the rooms in the Queens Garden Resort and turn the roof-top into the party venue from morning to night. With runway 19 in use at this time of the year, I am certain we will be able to use the time there most productively. The following list is merely a small portion of what I shot in BKK over four days : B767 of El Al, Aerosvit, Aeroflot, Business Air, ANA, ANA Cargo, Air Madagascar, Kenya Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, B772 of Air Austral, Austrian Airlines, Thai, SQ, Air France B773ER of Thai, Emirates, Etihad, EVA Air, CX, QR, B757 of iFly, Nordwind, Air Astana B747-300 of Orient Thai A343 of Turkish, SriLankan, Kuwait, SAS, SWISS, Philippine, A300-600 of Mahan Air, A332 of Hong Kong Airlines, Egyptair, Air Berlin, Gulf Air, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan, Oman Air, A333 of Finnair, CX, Philippine, A319 of Druk Air, Kingfisher, Royal Brunei, ATR72 of BKK Airways, Lao Airlines, Royal Thai Air Force A380 of Emirates ... and the following freighters : Saudi Cargo MD-11F, EVA Cargo MD-11F, Hong Kong Airlines A332F, SIA Cargo B747-400BCF, Korean Cargo B744BCF, NCA B744F, Thai Cargo B772LRF, Shanghai Cargo MD-11F ... ... plus all the aircraft types operated by Thai Airways International (perhaps with the exception of the A345 which I did not see at all). There is probably something for everybody when spotting at BKK. And once again, confirming the venue early along with the dates would facilitate early hotel and flight bookings, leave allocation for those who need to seek leave from employers and from Minister of HOME Affairs. KC Sim

Singapore Airlines Cargo is actually a separate company from Singapore Airlines and has its own ICAO code - SQC. But it retains the same livery as SIA and when the latter modified its livery, SIA Cargo followed suit with the bigger titles, bigger bird on the tail. If there is indeed a regulation barring MASKargo from having a similar livery to MAS, it is interesting indeed. KC Sim

If lower wages means being able to employ more staff than other airlines and this translates into better service ... sure, why not? But if having more staff in an area than the actual number needed translates into idle chit-chat, lower productivity and actual work being ignored, how then is that an advantage? In my experience where the gate was only opened less than 40 mins to departure, there were plenty of staff members in there - four MH staff plus three security men - and none seemed interested in letting passengers in the gate holdroom. A caucasian family with an elderly parent, several families with young children, lots of individual travellers, the few seats outside the gate are all occupied ... but the staff members continued with their idle chit-chat, the policeman is consumed by the game on his mobile phone ... and only when they are sufficiently amused with themselves and their gadgets did they shoot a wink at one another to open the gate at minus 38 mins for the B737-800 flight to Singapore. With this logic, I imagine you could put in 20 staff members at the check-in counter at Yangon Airport ... at Suvarnabhumi Airport in BKK, you have often a check-in staff, another one standing next to him or her plus another (often a less smartly dressed guy) who takes the printed baggage tag and is solely there just to tag the bag. In more productively - and efficiently - run airports, all the check-in functions are well and courteously accomplished with just one person. The operative word here is efficient and courteous service. High staff to passenger ratio is an empty promise if they could not be efficiently deployed. If Malaysian staff costs are really that low, then perhaps they should have more where MH excel - in the cabin. KC Sim

MH's membership in oneworld is like an empty promise if Qantas and British Airways do not operate to Kuala Lumpur. I don't think a passenger travelling from an Australian city to Frankfurt would want to fly to SIN on Qantas or BA, then connect on MH to KUL to change onto another plane to FRA. I don't think Cathay Pacific is too keen to transfer anyone to MH if it is able to take these passengers further towards their final destination. KK Lee is totally spot-on about not blaming the smaller number of MNCs and lower O&D premium traffic ... it could easily have positioned itself to carry such traffic heading to SIN or BKK with a stopover in KUL. The same way SIA tap such traffic through SIN to KUL, BKK, CGK, Australia etc. Just look at what the Middle-eastern trio - Emirates, Qatar and Etihad - have done. About having the youngest fleet by 2015 ... I am not sure about that. If the B744s and B777s are still in the fleet, they will make this claim a little harder to achieve. And don't forget that the competitors around Asia have by then also added new planes and shed old ones. SIA for example would have csst off all of its B744s, probably a good number of B772s and added a whole lot of A333s and perhaps even receive its B787-9s. MH really need to raise productivity ... when I checked in for my flight from KUL to LHR in December last year, there were three persons working at the check-in counter (compared to one in SIN) and as earlier mentioned by KK Lee, there are too many staff at the boarding gate. I counted at least six with a few more in the aerobridge. If there weren't supposed to be there and just happened to be in that area, they then are too free and were able to get away from their workplace somewhere else in the airport. On a flight back to SIN in late-December 2010, I went to the gate which was supposed to have opened an hour before departure ... but that was not the case. The security staff or police manning the scanning machine were sitting there - one was eating and another was texting on his mobile phone while another walked between the two sharing what seems like a joke. And there were four female ground staff in their kebayas - sitting and chatting. Minus 45 minutes, and they still keep telling passengers that the gate is not yet opened. They eventually admitted passengers about 38 minutes before departure ... I could see some passengers shaking their heads in disbelief ... but thankfully the cabin attendants on the B737-800 that day were there to salvage whatever is left of Malaysian Hospitality. If the MH spirit is willing to improve, it probably is a case of the flesh being weak. Until the airline is able to rein in its ground crew to work better, that continues to be its weakest link. I personally have experienced very bad attitudes at check-in especially - include the time when I was a guest of MH at the launch of the Hibiscus B744 ... the chaperone from MH offered to re-confirm our flights (although I wondered why it was even necessary because by then, most airlines have done away with that function). We (a group of media people) thought it was perhaps service beyond the call of duty and saluted the effort. At the check-in counter, I was told that my booking was cancelled (the same day that the staff offered to reconfirm it). I asked if the booking could be re-instated and was told that she needs authorisation for that. I asked her to contact the public relations department of MH, as I was a guest of this department. Unwillingly, she made a call using a number I provided ... put down the phone, walked away to speak to another staff (obviously this has nothing to do with my situation as they were both laughing and speaking casually). She returned and told me that my booking has been reinstated, but I still have to wait for flight to close before she could check me in. I asked if the flight was full and she said no. I asked if there were perhaps just a few seats available to BKK and she noted that there were quite a lot of seats available ... and only when I threatened to call the PR head directly to register my displeasure did she reluctantly check me in and thrusted the boarding pass at me without a single word. When I boarded the flight back to Bangkok, the plane was less than half full. Thankfully, this was a one-off bad experience but it left an indelible mark on me. KC Sim

You would have imagined that an airline like SIA would thoroughly test its new website before making it go live ... but obviously not. Someone was probably too anxious to show-off a half-baked cake that fell flat. Thankfully, it still remembers my location and language preference ... perhaps the SIA folks were confused by your very Korean-sounding name KC Sim

MW is 6 years young now. Soon, can start doing a poll to see where to hold the 7th Anniversary. KC Sim

The transit was scheduled for an hour and I gather it should stop over in Singapore enroute from Durban back to Seongnam Airbase. With the IOC decision on Wednesday, I would imagine its transit in Singapore would either be Friday or Saturday. This is Pyeongchang's second bid to host the winter Olympics ... and I imagine its chances is perhaps higher this time. KC Sim

KAF101 transited Singapore enroute to Durban carrying a Korean high-level sports delegation headed by President Lee Myung-bak to address the International Olympic Council members who are gathered. The Korean delegation will be making a final bid for Pyeongchang to be chosen as the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics, a decision that the IOC will take only on Wednesday. He will be joined by German President Christan Wulff who is lobbying on behalf of the city of Munich. Annecy is the other candidate city and garnering support for it are French Prime Minister Francois Fillon and his Sports Minister. Hope this provides some background to the visit of the Korean Air Force One. Never expect a sports meeting in distant Durban to bring the Korean Air Force B744 to Singapore! I am torn between wanting to see the 2018 winter Olympic Games awarded to Pyeongchang and Munich. KC Sim

At a press conference yesterday (1 July 2011) marking the inauguration of its first flight from Singapore to Taipei, TransAsia Airways' Chairman Vincent Lin mentioned that the airline hopes to extend its network in Southeast Asia to Malaysia. KC Sim

The weekend could not have gotten off to a better start. Korean Air Force's B747-400 HL7465 transited in Singapore enroute from Seongnam Airbase to Durban, South Africa. The light was great and the subject arrived almost half an hour early. What a stately looking Jumbo!!! KC Sim

Quote: We have improved many aspects of our service elements such as the food on board .... What??? I thought it went the other way. Or was I booked on MH to LHR last year and flew another airline without realising it? I have to agree with Francis Lee that there is absolutely nothing new in this response, nothing to show that the MH management has grasped the roots of the airline's problems - let alone solve it. And it is still singing the "Best Cabin Crew" song ... talk about being deluded. Now more than ever, I am sceptical about MH's future. While its competitors have moved on to ordering the next generation of airplanes, MH is still highlighting its A330-300 order as a banner for its efforts to become No. 1 airline (in Asia ... no longer in the world?). And about oneworld having fewer members because it is more "selective" . . . This must certainly be the funniest thing I have heard in a very long time. Qantas is deeply entrenched in all manners of problems and expect some dramatic new strategic directions to be announced on Aug 24. JAL was bankrupt and in the process of turning around, Mexicana was bankrupt, Malev and Iberia are all far from healthy - the latter at least is in bed with BA now. So much for being selective. If not for all the threats of penalty, JAL would have left oneworld to migrate over to Skyteam. The airline had actually already made that decision before all the threats came flying in all directions. It would be great to archive this thread and years from now, we should scritinise the response from MH and see if the airline is able to achieve its grand goals. Meanwhile, MH's CEOs words are perhaps very calming for its own staff and the less informed investors. KC Sim

MAS should not bother with Skytrax at all. I will never choose an airline based on this crap. All it needs to do now is focus on how to successfully integrate into the oneworld alliance (and not repeat what Air India is doing with its Star Alliance membership plans ... which by the way is dangerously close to lapsing). And I certainly hope that MAS also looks at its long-haul fleet plans ... the A380s and the A330s alone don't represent all their longhaul fleet needs. What about the replacement for the B777s? And most importantly, I hope MAS comes out with a long-term marketing and advertising strategy that is sound, sustained and credible. I remember how it used to spend insane amount of money advertising all those "space-ports" and it was the first airline to advertise A380 services long before even SIA did. It is all about marketing new products in a timely fashion (not way ahead of time) and in a manner that is believable and achievable. One burning question I meant to ask from another thread ... I get the impression that many cabin attendants wear wig ... Why? Is there an expectation that they should have long wavy hair a-la-1960s Siu Fong Fong advertisments for Lux soap? KC Sim

Shame on Tiger Airways!!! It is so focused on the bottomline to the point it probably cuts every corner it can find - and perhaps even some imaginary corners. Better to ground this airline before an accident happens and innocent people pay with their lives. Perhaps it is time for the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore to also perform a safety audit of this airline here in Singapore! KC

I can only imagine that Robert Yang and his team must come up against some meddling from political quarters ... and do not see the way forward for the airline to get out of the rut. RBA after all is an airline that has hardly ever been profitable, for the longest time never published any of its financial statements ... one of its past CEO is now with Air Astana and I am sure he too faced some pretty major obstacles to running RBA in a commercially-sensible manner. This looks like a sad moment in history for RBA. Brunei's tourism attractions are rather few and lack differentiation from other destinations. The population base is miniscule, volume of international trading (beyond oil) is minimal and O&D traffic with anywhere is very small. Connecting traffic can only work for them if there is connectivity and low fares ... now with the route cuts (and did someone mentioned Phase II route cuts on the way too!!!), connectivity has been slaughtered. I love the Royal Brunei livery and fondly remember their B737-200s ... at this rate, perhaps the only widebodied aircraft painted in its livery are those from the Brunei Royal Flight ... A340-200, B767-200ER. I remember there was at least one B727-200B painted in this livery too. KC Sim

Nice to note that such beautiful photography is possible at BKI. I will be arriving in BKI on the morning of 20 August with a friend on the Firefly flight from Johor Bahru. This would only be a same-day return trip as I depart for Johor Bahru later in the day. We both merely wanted to experience Firefly's jet service, having previously done the same with a Firefly flight from Johor Bahru to Subang and back (before they operated to Singapore). Could anyone guide us to the beautiful spotting location for action shots along the runway? We will have to depend either on public transport or out dependable legs to get to this spot, so any information - on where to head to, landmarks along the way and at the spotting location, any stairs needed etc would be most helpful and indeed most appreciated. KC Sim

Hi all, the following link takes you to a survey that a Turkish friend of mine is doing as part of her thesis on low cost carriers in the Middle East. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FF22MNZ I have never taken any LCCs in the Middle East but gather that perhaps some Mwings members have and could contribute to the survey. Many thanks and if you have additional comments on the Middle Eastern LCCs, feel free to post them here and I shall convey them to her too. KC Sim

Kwek, No worry about your suntan lotion business going down under ... there can only be one bona-fide carpark aunty who apply the milky stuff with such elegance - and many of us remember that only Jonathan (the Royal photographer) has the award-winning shot to show how it is done. Next year must find a way to weave in a theme - either everyone must wear an aviation-themed T-shirt or cap. KC Sim

Tuan Khiem's pictures along with others from Hanoi makes you just want to grab your camera bag and head there for a week of spotting! What a treasure trove of great traffic ... I would love to photograph the Qatar Cargo B777-200LRF! I gather that like the other Mekong countries, the winter season from December till February should be ideal for photography. Is that correct? Perhaps it is also a good time to come and experience the Vietnamese new year. KC Sim