Alex L

According to The BA Source and flightradar24.com: It positioned from Manila as BA9172. I am assuming it went to Manila for Maintenance (as QF also sends its A380s there). According to the BA source, it went to KL for further maintenance. Aircraft is G-XLEC.

Changing of the guard, Cathay Pacific has handed to Dragonair the Penang flights, with CX692 being operated by BHUE for the last time and KA691 the inbound Penang flight from Hong Kong being operated by BHWM, their latest A333. Dragonair maintains the 10x weekly flights but now all A333's. Alex.

The Star in Malaysia was reporting that two of the passengers weren't actually on MH370. The Austrian passenger is alive and well as is the Italian passenger who is in Thailand at present. The Italian said his passport was stolen. Not wanting to add any fire to speculation, this maybe more than just a simple crash. Nevertheless, my thoughts and prayers are with the families involved with MH370.

The thing is, if they are delayed say 30 minutes, they would eat into Sydney's curfew, which I have been told is one of the world's strictest curfews around. Thus, they only have about 20 minutes (I think winter is 10pm - 5am, summer is 11pm - 6am) to play with if they were to have any delays. Hence, pushing departure back is great but they are getting very close to a point where they don't want to be at and that's running into any sort of delay.

In that case that's easy. Air China operate direct to Beijing (early arrival with late departure) and on selected days operate to Shanghai as well, hence 2 Air China birds. Alex.

airlineroute.net is a great place to start. The other place is the Sydney airport website, www.sydneyairport.com.au. China Airlines don't operate the A330-200. So if it were China Airlines, it would be a -300. As mentioned, only explanation could be the curfew it missed since Sydney has a very tight curfew with $$ for penalties if you choose to break it. Alex.

Maybe I can try help. 1. 3 United Airlines B747-400s. During December and January, United are operating 3 a day services (December) and 17 I think services a week (January) into Sydney. Extra flight is UA826/827, which arrives early and leaves at about 12pm. The other two flights are as per normal (UA839/840, UA870/863). 2. 3 Singapore Airlines B777s (2 772ERs & 1 773ER). While the SQ A380 isn't at full Aus services yet, SQ operated periodic supplementary services into Sydney and Melbourne to cope with demand. This is SQ262 / 263, which operates on a triangular service (SIN-SYD-MEL-SIN). That would be the other 772 you saw. The 773 is not an ER bird but SQ221/212, which has been operated by the 773 for a while now and I think until just after Christmas before it reverts to the A380. Hence 3 777s. 3. 2 China Airlines A330-200s. China Airlines only operates A330-300's. I would hazard a guess that this would be China Airlines and maybe China Southern? If there were two China Airlines A330's, then I couldnt explain it. Potentially missed curfew from the previous night. 4. 3 Emirates Airlines (1 A380 & 2 773ERs). Unless there was a diversion from Melbourne, would not be able to explain the presence of the 2nd 777. As far as I can find, A6-EDO and A6-ECM went into Sydney on the 19th and there were no other Emirates aircraft recorded during that time. 5. 2 Cathay Pacfic A330-300s. Cathay operate 4x daily services during summer to Sydney. Chances are you saw CX162 heading to Hong Kong and CX101 coming from Hong Kong. Hope this helps. Alex.

I think you will find on pages and pages that the KUL - CHC flight is NON-STOP. They are only doing it 4x weekly and the flight schedules loaded are direct flights. Besides, they would mention if a stopover were happening when people book the flights. Remember that Air Asia X have A350's on order. They should make it easy to Western Europe (thought Budapest, Prague and Moscow was Eastern?). The A330's they are ordering already have IGW (as they are the E range) so they should have the legs to do at least Eastern Europe. In comparison, I think Thomas Cook from Europe did flights from Europe to Phuket non stop during Christmas and peak periods. MH is only struggling on the route to LA because it only flies it like 2 - 3 weekly. That is nothing when you want to make a footprint on a route. The minimum is about 4x week or even daily. It also flies via TPE which isn't a high yield port anyway. Hence a lot of factors are point to the reason why MH isn't doing the best on that route. As for Air Asia X and New York via Europe... If they can pick a port that allows them 5th freedom rights, then done. Low cost to New York and I mean low cost (since Air Asia X's cost base is amazingly low) then you would be able to easily make a profit with say 4x week to New York (feed into EWR and you'd could feed onto UA/CO, into JFK and DL, AA) so there would be good reason that it could work. Alex.

Australia's fleet of 9 A320s are either based out of Adelaide or Melbourne. As it is they are stretched to the limit so getting an aircraft to Singapore would be difficult as Tiger's Australian ops would be affected as it would take a while (8 hours potentially?) to get the aircraft to Singapore. Alex.

I just think Aussies need to understand that when there is a sale that involves Asians, they need to act pretty much immediately otherwise miss out. I travelled with Air Asia X on their $99 fare to KL from Melbourne and I booked my tickets at about 2.30am - 3.00am which was crap but I knew that if I didn't book straight away, the seats would be gone. Turned out an original 2 week trip shrunk to a 8 day trip as a result. Air Asia X can only have X number of seats for this cheap fare otherwise they would make a very severe loss. We all know that. I'm sure there are people out there however who did manage to get some really cheap flights from Aus - KL though... I'm sure that when Air Asia X was still advertising the $250 seats to London at 2pm they would have still had 1 seat available. At least one seat for $250 is still there so how is Air Asia X lying? People just need to search ALL the dates during the travel time to find that elusive seat! Alex.

So has anyone tried these new seats yet? I made a book the seat payment for my flight to Melbourne on Feb 2nd and it showed that the Premium class only had 12 seats as opposed to about 18 on the MEL-KUL (which was XAA.) Does that mean that I would be most likely flying on XXE? Would it be worth trying to get an upgrade at the airport for it or are the seats better than XAA that I would survive? With Emirates entering onto the MEL-KUL route, MAS are already reducing their fares from Melbourne - KL to compete. I mean, the cost of a one way ticket can get you a return ticket on MAS now. Emirates are going on average for $600 - $750 return in Economy but their flight back to Melbourne doesn't connect to anything. Would people take that flight if they needed to get to say Brisbane or Hobart where connections would be 6hrs +? Alex.

OK... I contacted Emirates here in Australia. They said flights are bookable from Melbourne - KL (so they have fifth freedom rights it seems). Asked them for a dummy booking fare price, they said $854.41 return from Melbourne - KL. It should be all in but the operator didn't seem to have any idea what I was on about. She said flights seemed to be wait listed a fair bit in July / August but fares from Malaysia at the moment are full fare at $3940RM. I don't know if taxes are included or not. Hope this helps. Alex.

I think this was referring to the old wet lease arrangement of OK-TVD/TVC and TVA if I am not mistaken. TVD and TVC were delivered (one with and one without winglets) but they never took up TVA because IIRC it was too dear to lease that one as well. The current 3 738's will stay pretty much long term. Correct me if I am wrong please. Alex.

It's not surprising, especially since Air Asia can now operate pretty much from anywhere in Malaysia / Thailand / Indonesia to Singapore. IIRC in the past JB was all about the getting to Singapore for cheaper than the expensive full service carriers (MH / SQ). Now that they are able to operate into SIN pretty much unrestricted and opening routes up quickly, it's not surprising to see them put their efforts into Singapore as it's more valuable to them compared with JB. Alex.

I know that Penang - Hong Kong and Phuket - Hong Kong will be one of them according to the Hong Kong Spotters Forum. Alex.

It could be Lion Air's next B739ER, if it is an ER. Lion Air has been rumoured to be taking the 739ER's from XL now they went bust. Alex.

I have no prices but I have a schedule. flights start 29th March 2009 5x Weekly Day 2 KUL 0100 - 0800 STN 0930 - 0530+1 KUL Day 3,6 KUL 0950 - 1650 STN 1810 - 1410+1 KUL Day 4,7 KUL 1700 - 0000+1 STN 0125 - 2125 KUL Alex.

QR's A319 fleet is LR aircraft IIRC, hence they have the legs to do the long trips. LH's A319 fleet is from Privitair, also a fleet of LR aircraft, again with the legs to do long trip. BI's A319 fleet I am pretty sure aren't LR aircraft so it is a longer stretch for them compared with the QR / LH (Privitair) A319 fleets. Alex.

I don't think it's a matter of justified. The fact was, Jetstar needed the plane to service the new Japan routes. It either had to pull the HNL plane or the plane that went to Bali and Bangkok. KUL is the youngest of all the destinations JQ started, so I guess you could say in that sense they pulled a route that didn't have enough time to prove itself. Alex.

Expect an announcement after the 5th and 6th A380s arrive on the start of SQ1 / SQ2 to San Francisco. Sometime in October is the expected start date. That would mean Emirates = 1 flight (JFK), Singapore = 4 (SYD / LHR / NRT / SFO via HKG) Alex.

Yep... $1010 AUD was the introductory price. All booked and heading for LA in January. Alex.

Yep. The plane was Wunala Dreaming, VH-OEJ. New ETA of QF12 is 2100 tomorrow (Wednesday night). Now this might stuff up Qantas schedules again. Alex.

The one thing I picked up when flying Business Class for the first time (on upgrade) and subsequently flying in Economy class is that these noise cancelling headphones are worth it... You get sleep, can hear the baby crying at a whisper so yeah... Well worth it. I think SIA also use Bose ones but they are Dolby NR I know that. Alex

It is confirmed through ILFC press releases that the 3x A346s are headed for Hainan Airlines. The speculation of D7 getting A346's are that they are directly from Airbus, so it can't be the A346s from CX as they are owned by ILFC. At present, Emirates large order for the A346 is still unaccounted for now that they aren't going for the aircraft. QR is also not taking their A346s so again this provides a large number of slots for airlines like D7 to take them up. Don't be surprised to see if it is a new aircraft from Airbus. Originally the plan was to operate via intermediate port like SHarjah to London but I think Air Asia realise that there is a lot more demand for direct services. With a A346 they are surely able to pack them in literally like sardines. That's going to be a fun 12 hour trip! Alex.

All Asian fares however don't have taxes included. I mean, 0.88 is ultracheap, but inclusive of taxes is how much? I believe Jetstar will use Satellite or even the main terminal (how Air Asia did it in the past) as it can sort of feed passengers onto the Sydney service. Don't know how Sydney passengers can get to Singapore on Jetstar though once they get to KL. Alex.