flee

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.

Fortunately, this is an incident - lets hope that MH's PW engines don't suffer failures like that on the United B777. https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/ntsb-united-777-final-report

AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes Speaks With Bloomberg in Davos January 18th, 2024, 10:55 PM GMT+0800 AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes discusses surging travel demand in Asia and plans to expand the company's fleet of aircraft. He speaks on Bloomberg Television at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. (Source: Bloomberg) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2024-01-18/airasia-group-ceo-tony-fernandes-speaks-with-bloomberg-in-davos

PW engine giving problems - hope it isn't something serious. 4 hour delay is a pretty good recovery, isn't it?

It was asset stripper Idris Jala who did the most damage to MH. Yes, they have lots of problems trying to get a definitive livery - this reflects how the airline is being run. Every little Napoleon wants to put his stamp on the airline. There was talk that they have not reinvested in the product - that was patently clear with their fleet replacement plans. They are clearly now paying the price for no fleet planning because delivery lead times are so long now. You have to wait at least three years for your new aircraft now. Other world class airlines like SQ have definite fleet replacement and cabin refresh plans under constant review. MH should be doing that too - heck even LCCs like EasyJet also plan their fleet well in advance! Hopefully, with the introduction of the new B737 and A330 cabins, this reinvestment in product will now be the normal for MH. So the stabilisation and consolidation phase is more or less complete and MH can now look forward to growth. Where this growth will come from will be important decisions that management needs to take. MASKargo seems to be a little neglected too. So I hope that they will also look into growing that business as well.