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same old thing as last event - only mock up USAF new planes - believed eventually the Sin airshow will lose out to the asian aerospace in HK.

for D7 dropping of flights to London n Paris is still more of a AK-MH share swap thing and in it their "non-competition" on certain routes agreement rather than on EU's carbpn charges. One can see the timely withdrawal of D7 flights to Europe and when MH is due to receive n operates its A380s by mid-year; and also the final granting of KUL-SYD route to D7. The main thing is what AK will do with its impending arrival of its 2 A332Es later this year which were to suppose to take over the A340s routes.

seems so obvious that finally ak admits it will stop flying to these 4 cities - and stop its London n Paris flights - so that MH can have no competition whilst at the same time MH thro the govt allows Ak/D7 to fly to Sydney whilst MH reduces its twice daily flights. Its bad for the pax as a result of AK share swap with MH.

surprise too that D7 may likely drop London n Pris - but then again its usual fares are too expensive for a LCC as its just a like rm300 to rm400 diff from even BA or Emirates promotional fares. Its probably better to get rid of the guzzling A340s too.

the only way MAS can live on - is for the govt to completely shut down MH - and then give it to a truly private n commercial MNC or even jv with AK or foreign carrier to "start" and have a "new" MAS with all new top management with no connections to MH or the govt. Otherwise merely changing the current CEO n some appointees and having few times of restructuring will never help and MH will still continue to bleed.

ak still are not transparent on its auxillary and admin charges as they quietly have raised logguage rates, and even the inflight meals prices and upped fuel surcharge n not reduce this even after the fuel prices came down after the spike. Then there's the high admin charge even for claiming back the airport tax when one cancels the flight and am sure there are thousands who do not claim for back the airport taxes when they did not fly - and in this case as the pax didnt fly - do ak keep the airport taxes for itself - which seems to be so.

its still ok to fly older planes - as even now many first tier airlines r still doing that like CX,QF, BA, UA n many others r still flying their 744s, 767s for at least next 5 yrs and considering there are still thousands of 734s, 735s,and even the older A330s. Even SQ new medium/long budget carrier will be using ex-SQs 772s which are abt 12 yrs old. While fuel price is high, but if the loads are good above 80%, even flying a older written off cost aircraft will bring in decent earnings. The very high costs of a new WB aircraft is still very prohibitive.

there goes MH 380s - and even that MH is going to give up flyginh to Dubai!

the govt shd just shutd own MAS totally - and then have a local jv but truly commercial MNC start a New MAS - this is the only way that can stop MH from bleeding billions of lost ringgit through the years and in coming years. In fact even having older planes is not a disadvantaged as the costs have been written down and if theseplanes are given a complete D check and life-extension retrofits - its just as good altho its costs more in fuel consumption but it costs next to nothing to pay for the aircraft - in fact thats how many upstart airlines are doing - always buying or leasing older aircrafts till they are financially steady just like AK - and even CX have bought SQ's old 744s pax planes too, even though CX is a very profitable company.

if the govt is serious abt mak8ing MAS viable and minus all the politics - just sack all the management and let SQ or CX run the airline. As long as MH is allowed to be continued to run with mere few changes at the top will not help and MH will continue to bleed and loose millions for years to come. Its not abt just aircrafts but its the people who run it.

doubt MH's so called new strategy will work - as already MH has bleeded rm1.3 BILLION loses to date for this year - and now MH wants to start a new regional premium with its 738s?. MH must have lost close to rm10 Billion since its existence through the few bailouts. Its better to shut it down and start with a fresh new paper and pen for a truly new airline as it must be a clean slate for esp the management and staff too. But guess this would never happen and MH will continue to lose hopefully less millions for the future. And with its planned A380s coming into service soon - believe MH will suffer more as even with today's low rate of its 2 daily 744 and impending economic uncertainty - even the new novel of the A380 n its premium class will not do any good for MH.

TF's head gotten too big with all his titles and likely forgotten what he had said before

airbus is equally guilty of such practices as it have been claimed that European shareholders have also given airbus cheap n soft loans for financing etc

imagine TF can spent over few HUNDRED million by sponsoring and buying foreign sports team! - hence even he recover rm2 mil from use of aerobridge would costs a dollar or two for every single pax that he can recover from its ancillary sales - like the recent increase in baggage purchase fees, rm10 in counter check-in! and the quiet increase in inflight food n drinks sale and most importantly the overall increase in fares and "admin fees"! And aerobridge does not really affect theturnaround time - as with 13 daily flights into SIN and have seen their planes turnaround even in under 30 mins!

total waste of public money sigh........... not based on real operational needs as its history of russian planes' operational availiability is 50% or less!

SQ's Scoot will have a hard time to be profitable as its costs will still be quite high as its SIN based.

well TF now looks like he just like to argue n go against MAB on the installation and use of aerobridges at KLIA2 - which seems to be a good thing as I have experienced waiting inside AK planes on 5 occassions this year due to heavy downpour at LCCT and Langkawi airports for between 20 to 35 mins. And this delays will costs AK just as much as the plane is just sitting at the tarmac as pax cant disembark n board. At rm85 for a A320 - its worth the have aerobridges and divide it against 180 pax or ave 160 pax - its not alot more and ak can charge rmb2 per pax etc as it have come out alot to even charge rm10 for manual check-in! Of course on MAB to raise pax dep tax is totally unwelcomed esp for existing lcct

trouble is the RMAF or govt's decision to buy fighter aircrafts like these russian ones are based on their or someone's agenda. The russian planes have a long history of maintenance issues, and spares and the main thing being "russian" which is still not very familiar esp in maintenance and the russian fighters' operational readiness have been at 50% or even less!

in part perhaps SQ have quite a number of its older 772s leaving the fleet and its a fairly difficult to sell these aircrafts in the secondary market and hence this new venture allow the use of some of its older 772s.

the solution have always been there for many years - just get SQ or CX to run MH and am sure it will be turned around - but of course we all know why this is not possible - and MH will be forever bleeding.....sigh

issue is that when Changi have a backlog of planes taking-off is bec its using just one runway at that time and it does too occassionally during morning peak hrs which for some reason dont know why they do such - as have been delayed due to one runway for landing n departure.

issue is some of these destinations are still operated by its older bone-shaking 330s with either no PTVs or non-avod old ptvs

looks likely too thatMH is dropping Dubai and South Africa - and these routes will be taken over by Air Asia X - as have been suggested even by Dr M himself on "asking" AK to fly to Africa. Also actually MH limited flights n low yields to US West n East Coast can be dropped too.

good 2 c the 744s being retrofitted and still flying for a few more good years.

yes most of the critical parts are unseen by the pax - as for non functioning cabin interiors these are very minor things. Even if the aircraft's APU is not serviceable, the plane can still be flyable for the next couple of days. It depends on a few factors as to having spare capacity, maintenance capacity to fix any aircraft that have some unserviceable but otherwise still flyable. These are covered in the MEL list n procedures.