flee

I think that any LCCT (or airport for that matter) should be designed so that passenger flow can be expedited for the short turnaround times of the flights. The short haul apron (usually for small A320/737) should be separate from the long haul one as short haul flights come and go quickly and frequently. LCCT should also be green and energy efficient so that running costs can be minimised. As such, the terminal's windows should only be on the north and south side so that the sun's rays do not enter the building, causing the air cond to work harder. Insulation should also be used to cut down the heat.

Yes, it does not make sense to have a LCCT with airbridges as it will not be very different from the MTB in terms of cost. I believe that a new runway will be built and that is where most of the flights to the LCCT will be taking off and landing on.

Nope it was delivered with the old seats and it is now being refitted with the new seats. D7 will probably make a big hoo hah when this plane is ready for service - so dun worry, you will see the new interior when they have finished the work!

Depends on the dates as I will be in TPE in early June. If the MW anniversary spotting sessions are held in SIN, it will be history and also prove that the hostile conditions in KUL have taken its toll on the hobby.

Also need a monopod to stabilise the beast of a rig!

It won't be going into service - currently having it seats changed and it will probably only be joining the fleet in February.

Great catch! It says "Stage III" on the engine cowlings. These chevrons result in lower noise but there is a slight fuel penalty.

PETALING JAYA: AirAsia finished the last month of 2009 with “record sales” while forward bookings for the first two months of 2010 are looking very strong, said its group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes. “We cannot reveal our fourth quarter financial numbers yet but from a sales point, we have had record sales for December and it has been the best month ever in the history of the airline in all the three countries (Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand) that we operate in. “January sales are better than what we have seen before and sales in February, with the Chinese New Year (coming), are looking very strong,’’ Fernandes told StarBiz yesterday. Traditionally, December is a strong month for AirAsia and most other airlines. At the end of today, the budget airline would have carried a total of 24 million passengers, and when combined with its sister airline AirAsia X, the total is over 25 million. “That makes us one of the larger airlines in the region,’’ he said. Maybank Investment Bank Bhd has forecast RM160mil in net profit for AirAsia for the last quarter of 2009 while consensus estimates by analysts compiled by Bloomberg indicate RM77.4mil. For full-year net profit, the Bloomberg consensus estimate is RM500mil while Maybank Investment’s forecast is higher at RM580mil. “We expect them to perform very well in the fourth quarter and this may not be (reflected) in the consensus estimates. “But if you stick to the fundamentals of crude oil (pricing) and historical trend of passenger (loads) for AirAsia, we expect the airline to post a very strong fourth quarter,’’ Maybank Investment Bank senior analyst Khair Mirza said. While other airlines were struggling through the economic downturn, AirAsia pushed ahead and expanded, strengthening its network and the “investment is now paying off as the economy recovers,’’ Fernandes said. He added that “the real joy for me is to see AirAsia Thailand and AirAsia Indonesia both experiencing a strong turnaround’’. Fernandes is bullish on 2010, saying it will be a “very promising year for us’’. The airline’s operational cost is the lowest in the world while its flexible fare pricing allows it to deal with any fuel shocks. And as its routes mature, it is in a position to raise fares. Fares will certainly go up as the economic recovery lifts demand for air travel. “Even a RM10 rise in airfares will be good for us as we fly more than 25 million passengers a year,’’ Fernandes said. “We have a strong balance sheet, our cash is growing and all our airplanes for next year have been financed, so that is why we say 2010 could be an even better year for us. “Even the contribution in passenger loads and profits from our Indonesian and Thai operations will be much in 2010,’’ he added. Fernandes also expects AirAsia X to break even this year, with the airline increasing frequencies to existing destinations and ply new routes such as New Delhi, Mumbai and Paris. But the US is certainly not on its radar screen for 2010. “We are also modifying the seats for AirAsia X as we now have another supplier for the seats and this will make the planes more comfortable,’’ he said. Industry-wise, he reckons that the “bottom has arrived and while we did well at the bottom, the economic recovery will be great for us’’. Meanwhile, AirAsia will fly to Balik Papan and other routes in Indonesia, along with Hyderabad and Bangalore next year. “Whatever skeptics have said over the past eight years, we will say we are in a good position now as all our investments made in terms of airplanes, people and branding are beginning to pay off,’’ Fernandes said. Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/31/business/5390295&sec=business

AirAsia-Jetstar tie-up is on PETALING JAYA: The proposed partnership between AirAsia Bhd and Jetstar is nearing fruition after a year of talks and the deal will be announced in the first week of January. A media conference has been scheduled for Jan 6 in Sydney where both parties and Qantas will announce the details of a strategic agreement and how these parties will work “innovatively together’’ so as to drive greater cost efficiencies across AirAsia and Jetstar. AirAsia group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes and Jetstar CEO Bruce Buchanan will be at hand to present the details. Jetstar’s parent, Qantas, will be represented by its CEO Alan Joyce. AirAsia is Asia’s largest low-cost carrier whose unit cost is the lowest in the world. It flies to over 61 domestic and international destinations with 108 routes, and operates over 400 flights daily from hubs located in Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. Its sister airline is AirAsia X which began flights to Australia in 2007 and has expanded to China, Britain and the Middle East. The Jetstar group includes wholly-owned Qantas subsidiaries operating from Australia and New Zealand, partner carriers including Jetstar Asia and Valuair in Singapore and Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam. Jetstar Asia/Valuair is 51% owned by Westbrook Investments Pte Ltd and 49% owned by Qantas, which in turn has a 27% stake in Jetstar Pacific in Vietnam. The Jetstar group operates 1,900 weekly flights to 15 countries. “Cost efficiencies is only one of the many things this new partnership will bring about,’’ said a source. StarBiz was the first to report on a proposed partnership on Dec 23 last year. Then, both parties including Qantas had started preliminary talks for a proposed merger. The parties had met several times over the year and even conducted some audit work. How the eventual partnership will pan out is unclear, but given the challenges the aviation industry faces, partnerships and mergers are not new and if parties can pool resources for greater efficienies, it helps airlines in difficult times. AirAsia boss Fernandes, when contacted yesterday, did not want to shed any light on the partnership. Will this deal involve any codeshare arrangements between the two airlines? Codeshare is a prominent feature with full service carriers and if low cost carriers can see some benefit from sharing of flights, then they may be setting new grounds. An analyst, however, has a contrarian view. He said: “It goes against the (low cost) airlines’ rule of keeping it simple in the no-frills business to codeshare but a lot depends on the intention of the airlines.’’ One route that may be shared is the KL-Sydney sector which AirAsia has failed thus far to get rights to ply. Jetstar, even though it has stopped plying the route since September 2008, has the rights. Will that rights be shared by AirAsia? The Kangaroo route (from any Australian point to KL and on to Europe) is a possible route that these airlines will capitalise on and with the partnership, AirAsia will be able to offer connectivity all over Australia via Jetstar Australia and it can take Jetstar’s passengers to Europe, India and the Middle East where Jetstar is not flying. Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/12/31/business/5389706&sec=business

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (Bernama) -- Passenger traffic at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) increased by 16.7 per cent to 2.615 million passengers in October 2009 from 2.240 million passengers in the same month last year. Of the total, 1.766 million were international passengers and 848,656 domestic passengers, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) said in a filing to Bursa Malaysia Monday. It said that passenger movements at other airports under its management saw a 14.3 per cent increase to 1.866 million passengers in October 2009 from 1.633 million passengers previously. MAHB said cargo movements at the KLIA went up by 11.1 per cent to 57.533 million kilograms of cargo from 51.763 million kilograms of cargo previously. For the other airports, cargo movements rose by 4.5 per cent to 77.690 million kilograms of cargo from 74.368 million kilograms of cargo previously, it said. The airport operator said aircraft traffic at the KLIA rose by 7.9 per cent to 19,371 planes in October 2009 from 17,960 planes in the same month last year. As for the other airports, aircraft movements rose by 13.9 per cent to 47,260 planes compared with 41,503 planes previously. Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=464862

Yes, and it will have its seats changed. Won't come into service till around February.

Hmmm interesting - isn't heavy snow also low visibility? Isn't snow on the apron that is not properly cleared obliterating the apron markings a case of low visibility too?

Hehehehe - imagine you are on a one hour flight and the plane lands 10 mins before the end of the game. Potong stim?

Not sure if the domestic flights will feature IFE - the screens are more for info and marketing messages I think! Since the aircraft are used for regional routes too, that is when IFE might be sold at additional cost.

Yes, that might be the case if it was stuck during push back. But if it was taxiing to the gate, then the FO should be the one "navigating" the aircraft with the greatest of care!

As I have said earlier, I think that D7 is resigned to the fact that it will soldier on with the A333's (operating stopping services) until 2016, when they will receive their A350s. They are not going to be leasing any planes if the lease rate is not favourable. It would also not be economic to re-configure the interior to higher density seating if they are doing short term leases (which are more expensive). On top of that, D7 are facing problems with governments approving their routes (as seen with the Sydney, Korea and Japan applications in 2009). I think D7 will more or less focus on routes that are doable with the A333 (e.g. Australia, Korea, Japan, India and Middle East). They will try operating the riskier routes with A333/A343 stopping services (e.g. US east and west coast), as well as leverage on their Abu Dhabi virtual hub. I think D7 has many challenges ahead (e.g. Tianjin loads during winter showed that success on a route is never guaranteed) and it will be interesting to see if they can innovate and defy their critics!

I did not encounter problems using Google Chrome (same engine as Safari).

No go - D7 only wants CFM-56 engined A340s as there are cost advantages to the maintenance of these engines due to AK's massive fleet of A320s. The A320s use a variant of the CFM-56, but nevertheless, it has many common parts with those installed on the A343.

I strongly suspect that MAS' exclusive A333 order is also used as some negotiating ploy with Boeing. I am sure that the TOTAL COST (not just running costs) of the A333 is superior to anything Boeing can offer right now, in view of the A380 compensation that MH will be seeking for the further delay in deliveries. If Boeing does not want to be shut out of future wide body orders, then it had better come to MH with a better deal plus delivery slots that are earlier than 2020.

Yes, D7 saw the ex-GF A343s and passed. Air Comet? Their A343s are very old, 1993 vintage!

Yes, both A343's are ex-Air Canada. Both the A333/A343 planes are not easy to lease - D7 has already stated that they are willing to pay US$ 400,000 per month max. D7 does not want to lease at any cost. Their immediate strategy is to operate more long haul flights as stopping flights using their new A333s because they have determined that most of their market comprise of pax who are "cost sensitive, time insensitive". So I think that more European flights will come next year via Abu Dhabi. US flights might go via Taipei and London Stansted.

XAA was reconfigured to similar seats as XXA-XXD - I guess the extra revenue is one reason. Other reasons was that the original seats were very old and the plane really needed some "renovations" carried out. A third reason would be to ensure that the plane's configuration is similar to the rest of the fleet for easier operations. The next plane to arrive in the D7 fleet (XXE) will have the lie flat premium seats and reclining seats (similar to AK's A320's) in cattle class. This plane is scheduled to enter service in Feb 2010. I think the Air Canada IFE system belongs to them (tied in with the IFE provider) and cannot be used by other operators. The A343s arrived bare - that is why handheld sets were used for IFE.

XAA was refurbished earlier this year (came back into the fleet around March). It should have an extra 100 seats. That is a lot of money! The seat refitting should pay for itself over a short period. Although it may lack seat back IFE, the hand held IFE (same for pax on XAB and XAC) is available for rental.

Thank you very much for the coverage from Japan! Very much appreciated!

Two problems with this idea: 1 The A333 is in great demand all over the world. Where are you going to find 15 planes available for lease? AirAsia X delayed their launch due to difficulty in finding aircraft for lease. The one A333 that they are currently leasing (9M-XAA) is the same age as MH's old planes. 2 The B787/A350's delivery dates are uncertain. They could suffer from multiple delays too, just like the A380. If you have leased aircraft you don't have enough flexibility to lengthen or terminate leases as you wish. So how is MH going to manage its fleet properly, if there are so many uncertainties. MH has stated that it expects to gain annual savings of RM300 million. I think that is a number that is too big to ignore. How much will waiting for the B787/A350 cost MH?