leon t

this is a good article by by former Standard & Poor’s analyst Shukor Yusof who have been in aviation for a long time. https://endauanalytics.wordpress.com/

SIA have already concluded this deal with Boeing earlier this year. This is just more of a PR show as PM of Singapore is there to meet Trump.

well not too sure about this alhough it would be great. This is because the A350s would have quite some actual J seats available, and MAB may just block off the 4 First class seats in a row.

from the Star http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/10/23/bellew-i-just-want-to-balik-kampung-outgoing-ceo-rubbishes-dr-ms-claims-of-outside-interference-in-m/ Bellew is very diplomatic about it and of course he did not say its because of interferences etc. But then again he say he just want to go back - but he should know that he signed a 3 year contract and he would have prepared for it when he accepted. But of course many would know why he had to call it quits. Bellew had to be diplomatic and not mention any work related issues and hence be in the good books as one never know if MAB will even rehire him back one day......

For MAB its good to put Capt Izham Ismail as the new CEO as being a local and have been with the airline for many years, he would at least be staying on as CEO unlike the 2 westerners that MAB had brought in. This is also bec CPT Izham would have known about the ways the airline have been working and the politickings attached to it and know that the "boundaries" of to what extend he can do and push. MAB will likely be "turnaround" by next year and make very modest profit but nt sure if it can sustain the profitability over the next 5 years. One way around this path to profitability is the way MAB and Khanazah will now working on to set up a new company to take over the 6 A380s which is a heavy bleed on MAB. With the new company to take the 6 A380s off MAB books, it will reduce a great part of its costs and this alone will likely be able to turn MAB into some modest profitability by next year. Of course, it remains to be seen if CPT Izham is able to exercise control over the types of aircraft that MAB will buy and keep its new order of widebodies to one single manufacturer to yield the economies of scale and reduce the number of parts and spares and in training of its crew.

finally yesterday spotted 2 clean A380s - one was parked at the remote bay, whilst the other just arrived from London at 610pm. Looks like the news on the dirty A380 which lost a front landing wheel last week did have some positive and fast action to give the A380s a good wash.

as long as Malaysia Airines is in the hands of the government or through its proxy agencies, real changes will not work as can be seen from these 2 CEOs who basically only served about a year and less than their contractual period. This is due mainy in part to interferences and the govt/agencies agendas. The airline will barely be able to get back into profitability and its history have shown over rm20 billion have been spent by the government to restructure or rather bail-outs a few times. Doubt Khazanah's rm6 billion injection into the airline will bring it out of the woods. Sooner or later, it must go the way of Proton.

looks like Bellew will be rejoiningRyanair on 1st Dec. Not good for MAB as that means its 2 expatriate CEOs would have leave less than their contracted terms.

Did Bellew says this because he will be likely leaving MAB?

well, it wont be surprising if Bellew does leave MAB soon...........see https://www.msn.com/en-sg/money/companies/report-will-bellew-leave-malaysia-airlines-for-ryanair/ar-AAtBn4P?li=BBitzrO&ocid=spartanntp

for a couple of months now the A380s are largely sitting on the ground for longer period of time as not all 6 are needed for the route and just a few flights to Seoul and MEL when its A333s go tech. But then again how do other airlines able to keep their planes relatively clean when they are all flying on average 14 to 16 hours a day. Don't see any dirty SIA or Cathay or JAL or Korean planes etc and even Air Asia planes looks clean. We should not offer excuses for MAB for not maintaning a clean image of their aircrafts.

United have been flying their 787s between SFO and SIN non-stop for almost a year now of flight time between 16 to 17 hours. And United will be launching their LAX to SIN non stop flight soon.

MAB Privatisation can only go through if the government and or its agencies really keep their hands off and not have a hand or intervene in the airline. Just like when PM recently visited the US and Boeing and thereafter MAB "will consider" the 787. MAB must be run independently of government and none of its political agendas.

so far have nt seen any dirty Air France, but over the years at KLIA, have seen many MAS planes from 737s to A330s to now especially the A380s in serious need of a good wash. Even the interiors of some of its planes esp the upper side walls where the side lighing is t is - one can see often dirty covered light panels. On nose wheel falling off is dont think have heard of but aircraft parts like part of the wings' faps falling off have been reported. Whilst dirty planes is not really a maintenance issue, but for MAB its a important image issue as MAB is supposedly tryng to improve and rebuild its image.

Also believed it was yesterday that a MAS A380 loses one of its two nosewheel on landing at KLIA. And many commented on how dirty looking the A380 was. But dirty aircraft is no stranger to MAS as have seen a couple of its A330s that really needed a long overdue wash.

The B747 is on the way out - but the 747 is still the most elegant and graceful jumbo aircraft and still truly be called the Queen of the Sky - something that cant be said of the A380. With more over 1,000 buit is something again that the A380 will never be ale to match.

doubt at tis time any ME3 carriers would want to take up a substantial stake in MAB as they could easily have direct routes from ME to any regional SEA countries which most of them fies to presently. Even for China, not sure if any mainland airlines would want to jv with MAB as they too are flying into most Asean countres,unless they are persuaded into.

doubt Air Asia would want to do another with MAB going by what happened the last time it did. Anyway ever since Malaysia Airlines been in operation the government through various agencies have already spent more than rm20 billion on Restructuring ( or as some put it as bail-outs" and now another rm6 Billion by Khazanah. The government should really adopt a hands off and allow MAB to really find a partner or another airline to have a stake in it. Just like what the government did finally with Proton after more than 20 years of subsidising Proton and now finally sold 49% to a Chinese company.

looks like Air Asia X may swap from the A330NEO to A350. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-10/airasia-x-could-swap-entire-66-jet-airbus-a330neo-order-to-a350s

not forgetting that they still have 6 A380s sitting around by 1st quarter next year.

for those who are involved with the aerospace industry or whi are aircraft enthusiasts would know the difference between a newer and much older aircrafts and even some of issues related to it. However for the majority of travellers, they would not even know the difference between A333 or B787 or a B777. But to each his own, some like to fly in newer planes or new generation of aircrafts, whilst there are some who like and seek out older aircrafts before they are withdrawn from service.

as a very regular flier, I do take a look at the age of the aircraft and the operator of the aircrafts and or see the average age of the fleet. However with somewhat newer frames ie say of less than 10 years, the maintenance costs will also not be higher as older planes do have more maintenance schedules to provide for and even unscheduled ones. Hence getting the lowest or "cheapest" lease is not only the criteria.

till fairly old birds and by the time MAB finishes with the lease, some of these will be 20 years old.

yes these 6 A332s from Air Berlin are fairly old from 12 years to 18 years old with an avergae age of 15.2 years as seen from AB fleet details. That means most of these planes are older than MAB current A333s. This would also translate to more maintenance issues and likely some unscheduled maintenance that will affect MAB fleet.

MAB/MAS should still consider only one type of aircraft for its 25 widebody planes as again splitting into just a few planes from AB and Boeing will not help with its efficiencies of crew management and economics of scale. The A350 and the B787 are nearly the same in terms of passenger capacity, range etc and eve AB claims its A350 is more fuel efficient. These 2 planes are not very different from each other and hence having only one type will help MAS tremendously in cost savings. Unless MAS is a big airline like SIA or JAL or Cathay then it can afford to have 2 to 3 types of aircrafts. SIA have 67 orders for the A350 alone and another 40 of Boeings. But MAS with its needs of just 25 aircrafts should just stick to one for the meantime until it can grow much more in the future. Just like it has just 6 A380s and have been struggling to even fill up the seats. This type of aircraft is identified and should suit MAS well with pax capacity between 250 to 260 plus. Mainstream airline is very different from that of general aviation whch is more on doing charters for small group of pax ie mainly between 4 to 8 pax and often to smaller airports etc.