leon t

Travelled to Mel on 14 feb from SIN to MEL on Emirates and it was 100% full and the fare was not cheap at $530 one-way and emirates was quoting S$860 for return. Returned on the only available SQ flight on 20th Feb and it was 100% full too so as the earlier 2 SQ flights. My nephew took MH from Mel to KUL on same day on the 855am flight operated by AQ330 and it was only 25% full! But going up on MH was 85% full. It Looks like SIN - MEL fares are nir cheap averagig S$800 and SQ daily 4 flights are easily abobe 85% full. Cant understand why MH 2 daily flights are not full esp the outbound from Mel.

As MH have not decided which anew aircraft to replace its 777s and even when it does - it stil take at least 25 years to 3 years at the earliest to get the new aircrafts - and hence MH must retrofit it existing 772s with new interiors immediately; and or lease the 773ERs if they need a bigger plane and to replace its A380s. On Adibvanhalen view of deploying the jumbos to LAX and "steal from singaporeans...who enjoy a non-stiop instead of stopping in Tokyo" - please note that the A380s is Not capable of doing KUL-LAX/SFO Non-stop and hence this is incorrect statement.

with this lease of 2 A380s to Turkish airline - MAS should also try to lease out the remainder 4 - as its too expensive to maintain just 4 A380s for their engineering dept to have its engineers n technicians maintained just to handle the 4 remaining A380s. MAS should seriously consider leasing a few 777ERs and some A333s to replace the shorter 777s routes - till MH have finalised its new aircraft orders.

yes they are being careful - but then again had the plane not circled for few hours and proceeded, then the media and others interested would not have known about this auto-throttle issue. The plane can still be safely flown; and this tech is not a rare thing. Some years ago, was flying on another major Asian airline and about 4 hours into the 7 hour flight, there seems to be this issue but the pilots decided to just continue onwards for the rest of the journey. However in this case it happened soon after take off, hence its ok to return to base and get it fixed.

Yes all along I have maintained that MH should get rid of the 6 A380s and should have never got them in the first place which is more like "trying to be there in having the A380s" more like for "gaya" purposes only. MH should now just have one type of aircraft to replace its 777s - either the B787 series or the A350 series as its too small a fleet to have 2 different types of aircrafts for economies of scale and maintenance. And it be good for MH to have 2 classes ie Business and Economy only and do away with First class.

hmmm... thought a pilot's that can control a plane would be more of B than A - which many have referred the A planes as a "technical manager" instead of a pilot flying it.

as have explained by the magazine, Qantas have Zero fatality during its long years as a jet operator - although they do have a few incidents but none of these resulted in any loss of lives.

at this time, although the ill fated plane is QZ - but the Air Asia branding itself is being watched too. And as a lesson nd precaution AK should also do it audit to ensure all its flight routes applications and flights are all done right - and not fly on any "misunderstandings" or "paperwork isssues".

MH should not even get more A380s, much less that they should even consider letting go off the existing 6 A380s. If MH needs a more "immediate" aircraft replacement which it does - the only clear choice would be for the B77-300ER or 77W as delivery can be in around 2 years or slightly less. The A350s would take a longer time to be delivered and MH exisiting 772s are getting on in age and worse have not been refurbished. MH should also order a few more A330s.

the lastest news is that Tony acknowledges that the flight was not properly filed. It cant be that his earlier explanation of "misunderstanding and problem in paperwork" was the result as the flight have been operational for the past several weeks and that it was not one but twice on that sunday ! It should not take several weeks to clear up the "misunderstanding". Although this is not an issue to the crash but nonetheless it reflects AK "lapse" in procedures".

This is the 4th of such incident for air asia group - as Malaysia AK had 3 such incidents - the last being in early July 2014 in Brunei

saw the landing clip and looks like the pilot landed the plane fairly hard as it bounced off once - not sure if this the way to land as with part of wheel boogie not down - a smooth landing would be better as it eases the load on the remaining wheels to prevent tyre bursts. Am sure the pilot would have tried using gravity during its flight manoevres to try and get the problem wheel boogie down before actual landing.

the trouble with not just others saying its a Malaysian plane - but was surprised to hear earlier that the Malaysian transport ministry was going to have a press media? This is an Indonesian Air Asia and the plane is registered in Indonesia and in Indonesia air space - so cant understand why the Malaysian govt wants to even poke into this - and made worse by PM commenting much earlier that "the plane has gone down"??? Why make this even a Malaysian thing as didn't the MOT and Trannsport Minister make themselves looked kinda st..... during the MH 370 incident with so many U turns Even at Changi airport and the s'pore govt officials did not comment on any speculation but to say they will offer all assistance necessary including 2 C130s which are on standby.

looks like CNN is now more of trying to "sensationalise" news ever since the way they cover MH 370 incident by having so called "airline/aircraft experts" and seems actually fanning the issue with more speculation. Even on this unfortunate OZ incident, have heard earlier on even Richard Quest made the mistake of saying it occurred late at nite and hence hard to spot etc - when its actually in the early morning - and only later did he and CNN corrected the time by saying he mistakenly based on GMT or his US time. Even although it was live CNN coverage but they are slow as they still were reporting that the pilot asked for a unusual heading even when Indon press report says that the pilot asked for diverting around thunderstorm and requested a climb from FL320 to FL380.

having a western foreigner to run MAS is ok and should give it a shot and the costs is ok too as MH have already lost tens of billions already. But Mueller will have a very hard time in carrying out his plans as there will be differences of opinions and interferences with Khazanah and the govt and he will not be able to achieve totally what he will have to do - and even may not be able to turn around MH is a short 5 years too.

just look at Qantas - just last year they reported losses and by now they are expected to make $300 to $350 million in just the last 6 months. Sadly this wont happen for MAS even after the next 3 years and how to pay off the accumulated debt of rm16 billion or more without the govt writing it off.

likely its just a power surge - than a "blown out engine"

yes TF is shooting his mouth off again - oh but remembered then he was the one who said that D7 should not fly so far and that a flying time of 7 hours would be the most it should fly to and that he did also say that its better to have the planes do a 7 hour flight so that it could be flown another 7 hours than for a plane to fly 14 hours and its not making efficient use of the plane. And now he is talking about flying to London by end next year (but D7 wont have any plane that can do a non-stop by then too), and Hawaii??? Think he should rein in his "loose" talk.

actually the troublewith AK X is that their fares are even higher than MH - I tried to book sin-mel return in mid feb and D7 quoted as S$1,100 ! whereas MH was only S$510 - and emirates fare was S$900. Same thing with sin-narita - it quoted at higher than MH for Jan 2015. Think D7 should be more realistioc and update its fares and compared it to MH or to even other legacy carriers like emirates or even qatar. Even if others are higher by between $200; its still better than D7 as the other airlines incl 30 kg check-in baggage and meals. D7 have to be careful not to over-priced itself due to its "success".

Took my 2nd flight on OD802 from sin-kul on 28 Nov, and the flight had a total pax of only 20 ! - but which is 3 more than its inaugural flight of 17 pax. The plane was their newest addition 739 and still have the "new car smell" after about 3 weeks in service. What I truly like is the amount of legroom that Malindo have and it seems to be better than MH older 772s and definitely better than SQ's. Just hope that Malindo be more aggressive in their marketing efforts and advertisements on this route. Flying back next day on Jetstar - it was at least 75% full and was wondering why 3K and AK are doing so much better on this route and Malindo is faring so bad esp on sin-kul when it has much wider legroom, PTV on every seat and even a cup of coffee or tea and biscuits offered. oh plus Malindo gives free 15kg check-in baggage which makes it cheaper than 3K and AK - and its fare is already on par or cheaper than AK even before this free 15kg baggage.

yes ordering a new plane and actualluy getting one takes a leeway of between 12 months to 20 months depending on the model and type of aircraft. However whenever AK or AK X makes an order, it does seems too large an order or they have over projected on their demand. Leasing of aircrafts is still an option and nowadays its not that bad as leasing are easier now - like for even newer A320s there are at least 2 LCCs that have aircraft surpluses and have planes sitting idle on the ground. Even for the A330s.

The main issue is that they tend to order too many planes at one time perhaps in order to get a better price - but then a plane is a very expensive thing and hence they should be more prudent in their assessment and not too bullish on their growth - as even for Air Asia - after ordering large order of aircrafts, they will begin deferring deliveries.

yes agreed with flee - and MAS is very aggressive in their low fares as recently managed to snap a ticket on MH from SIN to MEL near CNY next year on 14 feb and the fare was ridiculously low at S$495 net return !! which is the cheapest than even the likes of emirates or jetstar and even D7 was quoting at S$900. But it may not work in MH favour as such low fares and competing with D7 is not going to help itself out of its debt as MH is still essentially a maybe 2nd tier carrier if not as a 1st tier in KUL. Imagine MH even offer a flight from SIN-LHR at S$980 or from KUL at rm2,560! and if D7 currently and even next year do not do well and have losses, then Scoot and Tiger will be fare no less better and even be worse than D7 and AK respectively.

believed for Air Force 1, they will chose a 4 engine plane over a twin anytime as it does meant greater security and ability to fly than a twin engine should there be an engine failure - as the 747 can still fly safely with 3 engines than a 777 with one engine which has a max ETOP range. It doesn't really mean that the more engines a plane have, then the greater probability of it failing. It does not work this way as then if we have 2 777 each with two engines, then does it mean the 2nd 777 have a greater chance of engine failing? the USAF should order 2 B748s for use as Air Force 1 before Boeing shut down the 748 line.

well Air Asia X has positioned itself more of a regional haul airline rather than a long haul one as its flights are below 7.5 hours at the max - which TF have said before that it makes sense to not fly its aircraft for than 7 hours per flight. But then of course TF does changes his mind every now and then depending on scenario and he at the same time also mentioned abt AK X will look into flying back to Europe and even the US in the future. At this present time AK X does seems to be in some financial short comings but in the immediate future it is likely stand to gain when travels picked up as the world economy improves and it has the resources. But believed one main issue is that AK X went ahead too early to order more planes than it needed for its immediate future and that's is where it now have to pay for its decision. It has already 20 A330s and it probably need abt another few like 8 or so for the next 2 to 3 years but it went ahead to order 25 new planes at one go.