adibvanhalen

no point MAS being in OW alliance that can fly Malaysians to all corners of the world in business or first class when our leaders cannot exercise restraint in spending taxpayers' money

This plane can stretch from JB all the way to Seoul on a full load. Recent development of test flights revealed that the range advertised is well below it's capability. Thin routes on 6-7 hr missions may be justified if they plan to operate as a full-serviced carrier. Interesting if they can offer BKI-NRT or HND..even CTS, or BKI to some Australian cities. Same applies to JHB. Not to mention it's ultra-quiet,(noise is on par if not slightly more than that of turbo-prop...will they allow it to operate out of Subang?)

Qantas fly an A380 from SYD to DFW, using the great circle mapper would be 13804km...KUL-SFO is less. KUL-LAX would be around 100-150km more than Qantas' world's longest flight. Qantas capacity is 484 pax, but it has heavier premium economy seats...4-class cabin to be exact. MAS seats 494, with only 3-class configuration. I believe it can be done. I once read a Qantas pilot stating the sweet spot for an A380 is 12-14 1/2 hrs of flight time..which makes KUL-LHR ideal..especially when Heathrow is penalizing airlines operating older noisier jets. Airlines generally allow 2 checked-in baggage per pax to US destinations so the payload may not be fuflilled if not much room left for cargo in A380's belly, since the 777-300ERs has much more ample cargo space than the former. The same Qantas pilot above stated that going easterly from APAC to US could be on full load, but return may require a non-full capacity to allow lighter load to counter the headwinds. "The new Qantas QF7 / QF8 routes Sydney – Dallas (Fort Worth) – Sydney sectors are the world’s longest routes and are up to 1,200 nm longer than the original A380’s Sweet Spot range. 6,980 anm (12,920 akm) route from Sydney to Dallas. The 7500nm (13,890 km) ground track is shortened 520 nm by hitching a ride on the 35 knot average tail winds on the Pacific for the 14.5 hour flight. A theoretical maximum of about 580 passengers could be planned on this sector. 7,885 anm (14,600 akm) route from Dallas to Sydney. This 7510 nm (13,910 km) route is biased towards the calmer 23 knot equatorial headwinds for the 16.3 hour flight. A maximum of about 385 passengers can be planned on this sector." But then again since we're in One World, flying to the US west coast, can be uitlized with JAL while the east coast(via Europe/Atlantic) would be on American. So sticking to the sweet spot of flying time for the A380 to our existing routes, LHR, CDG, AMS, FRA would be more economical. As it is the only direct flight from a US city to Asean is JFK to Manila route on PAL. Thought MAS could give Aseans another option with KUL-SFO but then again what are alliance for, right?

if TK gets the A380s, maybe it'd be used for capacity-constraint airports like LHR or HKG. If capacity is reduced like that of SQ and KAL, could it not make IST-MEL or IST-SYD non-stop? with the favorable jetstream?

the A321Neo LR would be a good alternative to downgauge capacity from their A330s. Aust to Asean routes are set back by overcapacity, so if he intends to use KLIA2 as hub and spoke like Emirates' with DXB..Tan Sri TF should utilize Kangaroo routes to Zagreb and Athens using scaled-down capacity of their A333s. I doubt a full-load of 379 pax can take the range. There are lots of Aussies who originate from Croatia and Greece...as well as Italy, but a direct flight to Rome is out of range.

If the load factor of KUL-CDG all the while has been 60% or less, makes sense to utilise the B777-200ER for that. Falling crude oil price has been a boon to airliners this year, most delaying retirement of their old jets. Some of MAS' 777 can do with a fleet retrofit of 10-abreast like what KLM and UAL are doing..with slimline seats, pitch can be reduced from the current 34" to 31", think how many more rows of seats can be filled to increase from 282 pax to over 300-pax. If they replace the bulky old IFE with that of Lumexis fibre through the screen (FTTS) IFEs, that alone will reduce 2/3rd of weight of a traditional IFE per seat, imagine how many fuel saved if over a ton of weight is removed. With more seats, then MAS would be in a position to charge less for KUL-Paris flight added with their fly-rail agreement with TGV that can ferry passengers to their final destination all over France. Right now we are in no position to challenge Emirates or Qatar for their superior IFE content, despite enduring at least 90 minutes of layover in their respective hubs. MAS and Air France get you quicker to Paris but these Gulf powerhouses leverage their delay in getting you to their destination with their superior inflight services. Just last month MAS was advertising KUL-LHR for RM2499 and Emirates quickly countered by RM150 or so lesser.with Emirates you may get all 4 segments (KUL-DXB/DXB-LHR and back) with their A380 if lucky enough since they still play B777-300ER enroute from Dubai back to KUL or vice-versa...whereas with MAS it's the modern and quiet A380 all the way. Imagine if MAS offers RM2399 return with refurbished B777s..i don;t think AF can top that.with the right marketing and advertising, MAS can even upstage Emirates or Qatar for that sector. After all, they are night flights, how many of us wanna stay up to enjoy 6 movies back-to-back for a total of 12 hours approximately until we touch down in CDG?If the seats allow greater recline, and the angle-flat business seats are replaced with lie-flat seats, the business class can really fetch a premium price while economy-class passengers are more likely to opt for better rest for the night flight, saving hassle for the cabin crews, For the 3 A380s used for KUL-LHR's 2X daily flight, do we wanna give up that precious Heathrow slot?..Just read last month that a slot is worth approx GBP60 million or more when traded to a local low-cost carrier..(wonder if it's the same or more for a premium legacy carrier like MAS). 4-engine jets are usually meant for trans-oceanic flight, so I hope they get that US visa waiver done soon enough, 'cos in the west coast of US, only SFO and LAX are A380-ready airports. With MAS' current capacity of 494, that is enough weight for that range, however the return may require a lighter load due to the strong headwinds from the easterly jetstream. If TK wants the 2 A380s for short-term til they decide they are convinced enough to lease from Amedeo or buy directly from manufacturer, then as soon as the US visa waiver is dealt with, we should deploy the jumbos to either once daily KUL-LAX or KUL-SFO, or simply to both cities as 3X weekly frequency. Imagine the traffic we can steal from Singaporeans who'd rather enjoy a long non-stop flight to US rather than transit in Tokyo via their SQ. As for the Kangaroo routes, I wonder why MAS never thought of utilizing the slots (1-2 hours after arrival from major Australian cities) to use for departures for KUL-ATH or KUL-Zagreb since there are many Australian Greeks and Australian Croats residing down under.