flee

Flying at those hours increases aircraft utilisation - so the marginal cost of operating these flights is lower. Aircraft don't make money while they are on the ground.

MSA's breakup is inevitable as the Singapore government has always been outward looking (due to its reliance on international trade) and the differing objectives of the two governments will make MSA unworkable. I think the current CEO is probably the luckiest in terms of political interference - the demise of the BN government was good for him. MAG is privatised under Khazanah's wings and a lot of corporate data is now kept under wraps - so media sensationalism is also much reduced. So the CEO is more or less left to run MAG as a commercial enterprise, Of course, it will never be able to completely rid itself of the burden of being a government owned national airline, but this is as good as it gets. But MAG's wings are also severely clipped and its heavy dependence on the China and India markets is one of its weaknesses. China's economy is slowing down and India sees a resurgent Air India under new ownership. Fleet planning is also another weakness and Capt Izham stressed the need to reinvest in its products. Cabin refreshes and new, more efficient aircraft is all part and parcel of that. Just look at the cyclical replacements that go into the fleets of SQ, EK, etc. MAG is just barely replacing its fleet with the current 737 Max and A330 Neos. Any more narrow body orders will replace the remaining 737NGs plus maybe a little bit of growth. And new widebody orders may signal some network expansion. What would be more interesting would be to see if MAG is bold enough to operate longer range narrow body flights using the A321 Neo LR/XLR. The challenges MAG and its CEO are facing will be enormous and they also need the MoT and CAAM to step up and show better leadership of the industry. Lets see if they can succeed.....

What weed was he smoking? MH fought a race to the bottom with AK, bringing both airlines to their knees. And LCCs did not contribute to MH's decline? I think from 1972 to around 1990, they were progressing steadily. After asset stripper Idris Jala became CEO, the rapid decline began.

When I read that, I was highly sceptical - they have not received so many aircraft in a year before - right now, only AK and FD are capable of filling A321 Neos. If it is true that so many aircraft are coming from TLS, maybe the rest of the group will receive some - and old A320 Ceos may go to Cambodia or leave the fleet.

It was FD's HS-EAB on 31 Dec 2019. I believe they are expecting 5 factory fresh A321 Neos this year - but, as usual, supply chains will have to be reliable. Otherwise, deliveries will slip.

Very sad the Max is not fitted with appropriate cabins to conduct longer flights - I think that 6-7 hour flights will exploit their better fuel efficiency. It is a shame that they are using the Max in the same manner as the NG. Very unimaginative!

Looks like there is little to no demand for this destination - better to go Baku lah. At least there is a F1 GP event there each year.

As long as Malaysians need a visa to Turkmenistan, traffic from Malaysia will probably be for business. I don't foresee tourist traffic to be that great.

For factory fresh deliveries, I think Boeing will once again miss the delivery promises - they only delivered 2 of the Max 8s instead of 4. Airbus has also warned that deliveries may slow down later this year. So I think we will be lucky if we see the above numbers for factory fresh deliveries.

I think the possibility of Condor returning to KUL is greater than LH. I think that once they have more A339s delivered, we might see them back at KUL once more. US has never been a popular destination because of the need for an expensive visa. Besides, not many Malaysians have close links to the US. Australia and UK are where we have more family and friends. Besides, US destinations from KUL are already well served by the ME3 and Asia Pacific airlines like SQ, CX, CI, BR, JL, etc. That is why we don't see US airlines here - they are more focussed on their domestic and transatlantic markets.

I think the bilateral air services agreement has artificially restricted capacity because Malaysia's airlines have more or less hit the quota. But Australian carriers have plenty of the quota left to launch services. I think in the past, Australian carriers are uncompetitive due to high ticket prices and the soft product is inferior to Malaysian/Asian carriers. If QF revisit Malaysia, they have to come up with something special.

Boeing finds more misdrilled holes on 737 in latest setback (Feb 5): Boeing Co found more mistakes with holes drilled in the fuselage of its 737 Max jet, a setback that could further slow deliveries on a critical programme already restricted by regulators over quality lapses. The latest manufacturing slip originated with a supplier and will require rework on about 50 undelivered 737 jets to repair the faulty rivet holes, Boeing commercial chief Stan Deal said in a note to staff. While he didn’t identify the contractor, a spokesman for fuselage supplier Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc said it’s aware of the issue and will conduct repairs. https://theedgemalaysia.com/node/699809 Looks like quality issues are still an ongoing problem - the past year has seen one quality issue after another with 737 MAX production.

I think the A330 options were dropped because MH was bleeding cash like nobody's business during that period - so to take on more capital commitments was unwise. Having said that, it was also unwise to retire the B777 fleet so quickly. Fleet planning isn't one of MH's strengths. Even SQ makes mistakes with the fleet, but they do fix their errors promptly. MH just sweeps problems under the carpet and hope that they go away magically! Lets hope we get some news about the wide body options after the CNY holidays.

I believe it isn't only SQ - most Sg employers find Malaysians a cheap and willing labour source to recruit.

It looks like the 737 MAX may also cost Boeing a huge financial liability! The 787 programme has yet to recover all its development costs and if the 737 can't bring in the profits, Boeing will need to borrow heavily. No wonder Boeing shareholders are suing now! MAX 7 and 10 certification is now officially suspended by Boeing until they redesigned the deicing system:

He is saying it because he won't be around anymore after this year. So there is no need for him to find excuses...

MH is not a leading edge airline and they are trying to save some money by using older cabin products. The rationale is probably like this: even if you are an early adopter of leading edge products, they will soon become normal because other airlines will use them too. So might as well save some money and not take the expensive new products!

I think all GLCs are like that - townhalls are just PR exercises. GLC managements tend to employ consultants (who do not know the business well) and blindly implement their advice without giving much thought. I suppose they are too blur to manage the business. You see cycles of centralisation and decentralisation of units. Not so long ago, all the MAG units were centralised in one company, now they are separate businesses. And now there is some talk about merging some units again in the interest of economies of scale and efficiency. So we have done a 360 turnaround again. The top management gets paid fat salaries and allowances and they stand on top of the ordinary workers' shoulders. Is it any wonder that employees are disillusioned?

Yes, there is a lot of A330 feedstock in China. This one is ex-China Southern: 9H-VDC GALISTAIR MALTA AIRBUS A330-343(P2F)

13 years is considered young for a freighter - just look at Raya's 40 year old 767s! It should be OK if they put in orders for the A350F for delivery in 3 or 4 years. They can also consider putting in orders for A330 P2Fs. It looks like MASkargo is a little neglected at the moment.

If that is the case, the current A330F fleet will be a small sub fleet of 3 and the maintenance cost of the PW engines might increase when the pax fleet is phased out.

I wonder if they will convert 1 or 2 of the old A330 Ceo's into freighters.

Malaysia Aviation Group to Grow Fleet by 12 Aircraft in 2024; Welcome First A330neo in Q3 2024 Media Release: https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/mh-media-centre/news-releases/2024/expands-fleet-with-A330neo-entry.html

Good numbers to report - their business is recovering. We now await their Bursa filing for Q4 soon.