jahur

Friend working in mab just informed, that in 2018 January will only have 190+ fo's for the 738. Current 738 Network and frequency requirements requires near 300 co-pilots. Next batch of fo's coming online will only be 10+ due to sim constraint and you also have cadets leaving and being fished out by competitors half way through training. Not forgetting to take account of current pilots waiting to leave when the time comes. Few of them didn't had leave approval for 2 years are also the reasons for leaving, basically they were submitting leave request to hr and schedular every month. Either mab gonna have to cut down frequency and do further major roster adjustment that's probably going to entice more pilots to leave the company soon. Another option is to pull in captains to substitute the fo seat. Don't even think mab can afford expansion using narrowbody aircraft anytime soon.

It's morally degrading for many of them. There's many of them willing to stay to help mab but the fact the company overworks them with a lot of cutting corners some gave up and left. The a350 crew is stable but I really worry for the 738s and a333 the active recruitment drive currently undergoing is unable to fill the void of those leaving in masses when your own trainees also leaving halfway.

738 and a333 already not enough crew. Many fresh 738 cadet pilots left mab before even signing anything. Some existing crew took 9months for leave approval some never got approved due to shortage of crew some never got their leave approved while working nearly 80+ hours a month while AirAsia offers higher salary with the same hard hours u fly. If mab does not revise the pay you'll they'll be bleeding pilots and even cadets will leave for others and not forget foreign carriers are actively recruiting them and willing to pay off their bond.

Believe Mood lighting on all classes is the standard issue for the a350 and a330neo for any customer.

I'll be one night as flight hours is too long to operate a return flight so either they pax back or use minimum 11 hours rest period required.

The problem with twu-sdk the flights originated from bki, and maswings planning to terminate em means theres no aircraft for the sector. Unless maswings based an aircraft specifically in twu/sdk which is highly unlikely. I got the bki-kud-sdk viking flight for rm161 but its booked on mas website instead of maswings. But noticed recently flight is easily cancelled especially for kudat, weather is all over it. Still cant shake off my bumpy flight experience looking all the yellow orange red painted all over on the pilots weather radar display when viewing from the passenger first row view and last week same issue from friends account on the trip.

For Sabah the viking still needs to serve Kudat-Sandakan and also Kota Kinabalu to Lawas, while the atr is needed for the lahad datu leg as the airport doesnt support jet operation and there's certain demand for sdk to tawau on atr now they cut off kk-sdk+twu wonder how's the sdk-twu tag along is still flying or also terminated.

Vikings untouched but the atr crew will be likely absorbed to MAS as mh itself is facing pilot shortage. Theres a great pilot migration occuring in malaysia occuring mostly due to salary and benefit issues. Many have went to vietnam and hong kong and earn a great salary increment not forgetting the big three gulf carriers. Ak, mag and od have recently open up pilot recruitment the only problem with so many seniors leaving not sure if our flying standards will be maintained or were heading to something like Thailand. Some only worked for a year and fled as the foreign airline was willing to pay off the pilots type rating bond to release him. Those foreign airlines are also recruiting local fresh flying school grads with no type rated hours recently.

Dont want to get too political but Yes a systematic change is needed!

Here's another problem with the very low fuel cost and operation cost the fare should be low + subsidization but it is the opposite for Maswings flights are most of the time expensive unless MH and AK flights are off the charts on holidays. Certain % of Maswings fare pricing is controlled and set by state as if they're trying to recover that subsidization cost. Then they also got fussy when Maswings introduced the better equipped ATR72-600 claiming its waste of money over the old 500 series your MAS is trying to give off a long term investment in hard product to MASwings and state doesnt give a F%%K and overcharges your tickets on old equipment. Then you have crybabies minister MP Kinabatangan, previously fella created a big uproar when Maswings decided to reduce the SDK-BKI frequency as 2 of the daily flights have like 3-7 pax only and he so happens to be the one using that flight time. Fella went and complained and silly Maswings accommodated his demands by reopening the flight a month later. This is not the only case as few other MPs have been doing the same and ur regular RAS airline abide to the loss making operation as if state gives a big chunk of money for them when its only marginal subsidization to their fuel cost per flight vs what 2-3 fare paying pax its embarrassing . Flights even have to re-timed to accommodate them. Things like this is whats bleeding the turboprop operations in borneo. If you look at the states project investment in Sabah(not sure about Sarawak) you know many of the developments are half past six. Apart from RAS and turboprop services sectors from agriculture up to structural infrastructure and ICT+ Desa+ ladang lahad datu is down the drain. Instead of channeling reserves for that they spent more on offshore bankings and investments and so many hoo-hahs names onboard the bod. Then every session state goes all crybaby saying federal tak bagi cukup untuk developing Sabah when state has big allocation for it.

Apart from jetplane is superior over turboprop stigmata by the average joe. The atr does not have a proper APU they have some called hotel mode where the right engine is running but on prop brake to prevent prop spinning. Then theres a problem during baggage loading hotel mode has to be switched off as it generate very hot air that will flow to the baggage handler and ground crew so its safety and health hazard. Problem also is the hotel mode air that comes out to the cabin is usually warmer than the jet aircrafts on apu. So all these taken to account most of the time passenger will board the plane without any air conditioning right until before engine startup. Plus the atr while it can to through any turbulence is not as smooth as the fokker or q400 hence many nervous flyers wont enjoy the atr trip. The only thing atr really triumph over the fokker 50 and q400 is the fuel burn. Imagine cruising fuel burn rate is near up the same as an b737-800 taxing on the taxiway.

BKI-MYY is mostly mixed bag. I have a classmate who says most of the flights are empty. AFAIK the profiting atr routes are Kuching to miri, miri to mulu(surprisingly due to rising influx of chinese tourist), kuching to bintulu, kota kinabalu to lahad datu, kota kinabalu to sibu. Believed the terminating routes mentioned in the article by transport ministry is due to the fact they're no longer subsidizing them and believe ak/mag or od should take up the route and operate them commercially. The funny thing they mentioned the load on the terminating routes have a load factor of 86% when most of the time they're barely half full except for kch-myy. Either the minister does not know what his talking about or his simply taking data from holiday seasons or during the current frequency reduction imposed by maswings. The main concern now after the termination is for ak or mag or lion group to find the right aircraft. The ATR is not a very good platform while the b738/a320 is excess capacity. Think they'll have to take a look at the embraer 135,175 or bombardier cs300 most the airports in sabah sarawak can take jets now.

While building roads seems to be the better answer you would have to look the topography especially east to west roads. The kinabatangan project was almost greenlighted until foreign naturalist appose it as it will intefere with the local wildlife. People over there got very pissed some of the wildlife killings involving poisoning elephants recently have been attributed to pissed farmers and locals that have been denied urbanization and yet the animals encroached their farms. As for aircraft the poorly designed ATR Manual state if anti-ice appliance did not de-ice the wings during icing condition which most of the time happens on rainy season you have to descent for lower cruising altitude and in cases for e.g SDK-BKI sector to avoid weather you would have to deviate far north to near kudat but there are cases where kudat itself is surrounded by weather, pax will be going in for a very bumpy ride or worse off flight delayed significantly. Then you'll see the AK/MH flight took off instead then locals will go"itu airasia dah tak off ini maswing mengapa delay sama ke kk jugak" as it could cruise way higher and have proper de-icing mechanism. I'm saying the ATR itself while very fuel efficient is not a very sturdy plane when compared to the fokker 50/Q400. There's little to no ATR operations in North America due to icing cases while other tundra country like russia have many cases and incidents due to icing and resort to instructing to crew to cruise at lower altitude and also to take note Borneo itself is a very adverse weather inducer, tropic thunderstorms and very wide spread compared to other regions.

Hence why state was subsidizing the previous ops to keep air connectivity previously to maintain the frequency. As for east to west bound of Sabah the terrain road itself is so bad 8hours on express bus for sdk and 13 hours to twu. Building a new highway to tawau cuts through got rejected as it'll slide beside bypass or slice through danum valley which is a no touch zone, Kinabatangan highway got rejected by foreign tree huggers association. Another account to take on is weather intensity on borneo crocker range is quite severe during monsoon season. For inter sabah flights the ATR has to outclimbed quickly over the hills which itself isnt capable of doing so during peak periods only the 737 and a320 are capable of that and also facing icing conditions most of the time when thunderstorms are in vicinity which atr itself has a dodgy record overseas. Believe regional jets are the key for ak, od and mag for these sectors.

Problems are most of these routes are seasonal. BKI-SDK,BKI-MYY too many flights a day even for ak 80+ pob and 20+ pax on maswings on weekdays. You also have a problem with pricing MASWings flight fare are most of the time more expensive than MAS. From what i heard the pricing is set by state gov which isn't even helping the rural community at all. Then problem arises during holiday seasons that it gets too full and people dont have any seats to go back to. The only sector that doesn't make sense is KCH-MYY believe load over here is good. Believe the cut will be good for AK and MAS as they'll be able to absorb more pax and state no longer subsidizing majority of the atr operations. The downside is people lose the frequency based flights they'll be rolling the dice more on holiday seasons when difficulty in getting seats. Malindo did recruitment and study analysis on atr operations. However they pulled off as load is uneven and lower than the peninsula operations and if they open atr flights it would not be replacing maswings sector but opening new regional routes to kalimantan and southern philipinnes.

Seems that list is based on recommendation taking all aspects into consideration as per requirement that the A380 require Code F designated airport. However most a380 can handle airports in South East Asia with long runways and sufficient gate width and also with payload modification and careful operation during taxing.

BKI already has a gate readied and prepped at bay 2 at terminal 1. While terminal 2 has already accommodated a bbj 748 before. It is more of a question of ground handling efficiency which likely doesn't affect much apart from slight turnaround delay.

No worries very sure MAB will upgauge flights to KCH just that its non schedule at the moment also be on the lookout for december 8 onwards as the A350 will be flying occasionally deployed on upgauge sectors this involves BKI,KCH,PEN randomly. Funny MAB is willing to threw the A350 around compared to A380 but looking back i believe it is due to capacity. Most of the peak season pax count dont even surpass 360 pob on widebody flights thats when the 385 seater B747-400 could still be able accommodate and can be spotted in KCH,BKI when as compared to 100+empty seats on the A380. The A350 has 286 seats so nearly compatible with the current weekly A330 upgrades BKI and KCH is having. As for A320neo theyre great aircraft to spot but already sat on ak's one thrice i prefer ak's older a320. The Neo's repositioned galley and OKU toilet design is so tight awkward.

Not on the system gds as of not. But highly suspect to be deployed on non schedule upgrades like the a333s.

Malaysia Airlines to operate A350 aircraft on Kuala Lumpur - Kota Kinabalu sector 27DEC17 - 14JAN18 MH2614, MH2607 already loaded into the website.

Guys MH2614 MH2607 Flights above will be operated by A350-900 from December 27 until January 14. It has been loaded into the website.

Aussie routes are not affected much its mostly the west bound routes to india, the difference is quite significant when the plane has to do nearly 4 long sectors in a day.

Seems OD cant allign their operations at the moment. One of the major issues folks have leak is Etops rating and flightplan requires both captain and co-pilots to be rated and took classes for it however training and sim constraint slot in Jakarta means longer time to get FO's online for line training and OD already having issues with staff shortage. This is why OD needs its own 737ng sim instead of churning out quick cockpit crew but each batch with different classes taken. This has sometimes and most of the time cause pre planned flights to india and aussie to deviate slightly and remain closer to land thereby causing the flights block time taking longer. This brought on by the fact operation is unable to set different flying block time for certain regional sectors as u may have etops rated capts and fo crew to ply the straight flightplan today then having non etops rated crew being prepped for route on the next day. These combination cause a very long domino affect on certain aircraft pattern results the serious amount of retiming and rescheduling.

AFAIK LBU,MYY closes after midnight and extension operating hours requires approval, leaving only BWN as the as a diversion then again maybe weather was there or parking was near full at that period no partner ground handling to liaise with and also Immigration issue would be a hassle to divert there. So KCH is ideal.

It may be beneficial to KCH's tourism seeing how other market and airlines failed to materialized ak should take the opportunity to try. provided they dont pull the plug so quickly like they always do. BKI sudden increasing traffic these past two years is due to china flights from China Southern, Shanghai Airlines, Spring Air, Xiamen airlines and local ak, od mh. There are actually a lot good behaving mainlander tourist i've met, seemingly i think they're aware of the behavioral moral issues they've been causing to other countries so they strictly tone down their doings. But there are times i've encountered complete morons where they cross the highways like pack of cows slowly and waving their hands at cars like they own the roads, shitting in back alley of a seafood restaurant, then the noise levels they create that rivals the South Koreans who are actually already very noisy and locals abusing the airbnb system by hosting these tourist in their apartments creating noise and cleanliness nuisance . Would've preferred Taiwanese and Japanese tourist as what i see many years ago but then again not many wanna visit Sabah nowadays.