flee

I think that some of these aircraft might go to FD and QZ - they are expanding their operations to more international destinations.

Don't think it is an aircraft issue - they will have new A333's (that was the original aircraft used on this route) to replace the A343.

Errr, I think only Asia Pacific champion lah, not quite world champions yet!

And what about Singapore Airlines? Substantially govt. owned, is a full fare legacy and flag carrier too. I rest my case...

'People' And 'Positive' Behind Airasia's Success, Says Founder BEIJING, Oct 29 (Bernama) -- The two "P"s -- "People" and "Positive" -- coupled with other factors have contributed to the success of Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes and AirAsia, the low-cost airline founded by him. "We have great people, very good discipline, been very positive and we operate at lowest cost," said Fernandes in an interview with Bernama in Beijing Wednesday. AirAsia and AirAsia X were jointly awarded "Best Airline of the Year 2009" and Fernandes received the CAPA (Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation) Legend Award at the CAPA Aviation Awards for Excellence presentation ceremony in Beijing Wednesday night. The CAPA Legend Award (Aviation Hall of Fame) is given to outstanding individuals who bring about a revolutionary change in the aviation industry. "I think there is always business for us if we are positive. If you are negative, always worry about problems, always complain, then you lost 50 per cent," said Fernandes, who is also AirAsia's group chief executive officer. "If you encounter problems, don't put your head in the sand. Even if you have to cry, cry for half a day and then bounce back," he said. At the award presentation, Fernandes was praised for "his drive, creativity, enthusiasm in driving liberalisation of the aviation industry across the region". AirAsia managed to show growth in the first half of 2009 with even greater growth in the second quarter despite the global financial crisis and the pandemic H1N1 flu which affected many airlines across the world. The AirAsia group achieved an operating profit of RM288 million in first half 2009, which was five times more than same period of 2008. It also achieved a passenger growth of 24 per cent year-on-year. "Being an airline that make the most impact for the year, we are one of those which achieved the highest profit performance, and being innovative in developing new routes, I think these contributed to our winning," Fernandes said. AirAsia set up AirAsia X, a new business model which put low-cost long-haul travel to work. "No one else had done it before, and a Malaysian company did it," Fernandes said. "It is a great honour for a Malaysian company to come to Beijing and beat China Airlines, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Singapore Airlines and others. We should be very proud," he said. "It shows you that Malaysia can be the best," he added. On AirAsia's performance in the China market, Fernandes said: "The China market is fantastic and I think we just scrapped the surface. There is a lot more development that can be done. We are looking at routes from Kota Kinabalu and Penang to China cities." "We are now running 193 flights a week in China, we are bringing a lot of tourists to the Malaysian market," he said. Within just three years, AirAsia has started its Hong Kong, Macao, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Haikou, Guilin and Hangzhou routes while AirAsia X launched its long-haul route from Kuala Lumpur-Tianjin route in February, followed by the Kuala Lumpur-Chengdu route in October. "We are looking at opening up new routes to four or five more cities, like Wuhan, Ningbo, Xian, Chongqing and probaly another eight to nine routes in next two to three years," Fernandes said. Asked if Airasia encountered difficulties in operating new routes in China, he said: "No issue at all, the Chinese government has been very supportive, they see it as a win-win situation. As AirAsia brings in more tourists, the local governments always ask us to fly in." "AirAsia X has been a good surprise too. We carried six million people in China, that is a huge number," he added. Fernandes said AirAsia X was looking at a few new routes in China, but in next few years the airline would probably focus more in India before coming back to China. Asked on the possibility of AirAsia collaborating with China's airlines such as its low-cost carrier Spring Air, he said that AirAsia was currently focusing on the Asean market. "But we can always collaborate with local airlines. We bring a lot of people to the major hubs like Tianjin and Chengdu and we can cooperate with local carriers in the sharing of passengers," he added. On whether AirAsia considered it a challenge if China's low-cost carriers were to expand overseas, Fernandes said: "The market is huge and I think we mustn't worried about competition, there is big enough market for all of us. I take a very different approach from many other airlines which want to keep the market closed." Asked if Airasia was considering buying China's home-made aircraft like the C919 from China Commercial Aircraft Corporation in future, Fernandes said the airline had already placed a big order for Airbus aircraft. "I don't see it happening anytime soon, but for next five to 10 years, some of our aircraft may come from the factory in Tianjin." Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=450956

Airasia Revises Delivery Of A320 KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 (Bernama) -- AirAsia Bhd has signed an amendment agreement with European airplane maker Airbus to revise the delivery dates of eight A320 aircraft originally scheduled for delivery in 2011 to 2014 and 2015. In a statement to Bursa Malaysia Thursday, the regional low-cost carrier said with the deferments, the original delivery of 23 aircraft in 2011 would be reduced to 15 aircraft. The original number of deliveries in 2014 would also be increased to 24 aircraft from 18 aircraft while in 2015, the airline would take delivery of two aircraft as opposed to nil, it said. No penalties are payable by AirAsia in revising the delivery schedule of the 2011 aircraft, it added. AirAsia said the deferral of the 2011 aircraft was due to forecast infrastructural constraints with the current airport facilities. It said that until the new low-cost carrier terminal was constructed, the present infrastructure at the low-cost terminal would not be able to accommodate AirAsia's fleet expansion in the number of aircraft originally scheduled to be delivered in 2010 and 2011. The scaling down of the aircraft delivery in 2011 is to further enable AirAsia to optimise its fleet and avoid the costs associated with leaving idle or underutilised aircraft, thus avoiding incurring depreciation, interest expense and other costs without earning revenue. Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=451003

They have already thanked us! CAPA Website Report: http://www.centreforaviation.com/news/press-releases/2009/10/29/airasiaairasia-x-scoop-top-award-at-centre-for-asia-pacific-aviations-annual-awards-for-excellence/page1 My next flights with AK will be next month, KUL-KBR-KUL...

To save costs, they might just want to add a strikeout to the word "NEW" on 9M-XAB! Well done AirAsia, AirAsia X and Tony Fernandes! But please, don't rest on your laurels and go downhill from now!

Yes this plane will be registered 9M-XXD. The final A333 to be delivered this year will be 9M-XXE in December.

D7's next A333 has made its first flight. This plane should arrive at LCCT next month. A.Net's T Laurent has the plane's first landing: http://www.airliners.net/photo/AirAsia-X/Airbus-A330-343X/1600991/M/

Fuel burn is only one part of total operating costs. If the MD-11's cost peanuts to buy, then higher fuel burn will only hurt if the plane flies a lot of the time. Cargo planes tend to have much longer turnaround times compared to civil airliners.

I suspect that the taxiway is also more bumpy. So I wonder if the aircraft's landing gear was damaged. It was a good thing that there were no planes on the taxiway. Otherwise, we would have seen another fireball crash! My guess is that the flight crew were too tired after a long flight, and they are unfamiliar with the airport layout.

Nice shot of a classic aircraft. Those Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines must be very noisy and fuel hungry these days, unlike the CFM 56 engines that the KC-135 tankers are retrofitted with.

NTSB investigates active taxiway landing by Delta Four investigators from the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are examining circumstances surrounding the landings of a Delta Air Lines Boeing 767 on an active taxiway at Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport. Preliminary information received by the board indicates the incident occurred in 19 October at 6:05am EDT. The aircraft - N185DN - was operating as flight 60 from Rio de Janeiro to Atlanta. The aircraft landed on taxiway M after it was cleared to land on runway 27R. NTSB explains the taxiway is situated immediately to the north and parallel to runway 27R. Runway lights for 27R were illuminated, but the localizer approach lights for the runway were not turned on, says NTSB. At the time of the landing taxiway M was active but clear of aircraft and ground vehicles. Other conditions present at the time were calm winds with 10 miles of visibility, with night-dark conditions prevailing. NTSB says twilight conditions began at 7:20am EDT followed by official sunrise at 7:46am. No injuries were reported among the 182 passengers and 11 crewmembers onboard. Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/10/22/333830/ntsb-investigates-active-taxiway-landing-by-delta.html

Pieter, In Malaysia, there is no such thing as Aviation Correspondent. All the writers are merely reporters (who may have mass communications qualifications) - they are not specialists in any field. So please excuse their ignorance!

SQ has already assigned its PEN-SIN route to MI - so it would not be wrong to assume that this strategy should continue for these new destinations.

Correction: Sorry, the first delivery is to Etihad.

All four MD-11's are parked at SZB. Transmile are looking for buyers for these planes.

Also bear in mind that the B734's CASM is not as low as that for modern airliners like the A322. Furthermore, the B734's have fewer seats - it gets full a lot quicker! MH does not have much to play with as far as yields are concerned.

There is no A333F - Airbus is currently developing the A332F. The A332F will not come in time unless MASKargo has managed to lease it. First flight of this aircraft is scheduled for November and first delivery (to Emirates) will be in the middle of next year. MD-11's have slightly more capacity when compared to the A332F.

Yes. See http://www.boeing.com/commercial/modifications/freighter_conversions.html

MAalaysia Airlines Cargo Sdn Bhd (MASkargo), the air cargo subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines, says it is looking for bigger cargo planes next year when the lease of its four narrow-body freighters expires. Managing director Shahari Sulaiman said he was deliberating on the best aircraft type for the carrier in light of a recovery in world air freight volume and was considering wide-body freighters such as the Boeing 747-400 and the Airbus 330. Currently, MASkargo has a wet-lease contract for four 747-200 freighters (747-200Fs) provided by Air Atlanta Icelandic, which expires at the end of April next year. This is in addition to two 747-400Fs that it owns. A wet lease is the leasing of a plane including crew, maintenance and insurance. "Next year, we have an opportunity to right-size our freighter capacity (to better match demand). We are working out what is the best aircraft type to use beyond April and may look at the bigger 747-400Fs or A330Fs," Shahari told Business Times in an interview. He added that cargo volume in the third quarter had shown encouraging signs of a recovery. MASkargo saw year-on-year demand improve from a 30 per cent decline in the first quarter of the year to a 23 per cent decline in the second quarter. Its biggest improvement was in the third quarter, with September showing a 9 per cent decline. "Cargo volume handled in September was higher than in December last year. As such, we expect to see positive growth in cargo volume by November." While Shahari believes that the worst is over for the air cargo industry, he feels that recovery will be slow. "This year, the business environment has never been this challenging for the aviation industry, including the air cargo segment. Volume has dropped drastically and the region most impacted was Asia-Pacific. "However, in recent months, we see a recovery (in volume) in Asia-Pacific, especially China. So, while we were the first (region) to be hit by the global economic crisis, we were also the first to recover from it," he said. MASkargo's average load factor continues to hover at 70 per cent, above the 48 per cent market average, thanks to capacity cuts in the first quarter. "We parked one of our 747-400Fs in March this year to cut costs amid the global economic downturn. In addition, our parent MAS had cut scheduled passenger flights by 13 per cent, affecting the bellyhold capacity which accounts for 60 per cent of our cargo capacity. These measures have kept our cargo load factor up," said Shahari. However, with capacity down, even though cargo numbers have started to rise, yields remain weak. "According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the yield dilution in the airline industry was close to 17 per cent. Ours are below that level," Shahari said. In response to the seasonal upturn in cargo demand in the fourth quarter, MASkargo brought back into service last month its parked 747-400F. "With the reintroduction of our freighter, we launched a once-weekly service between Kuala Lumpur and Narita, Tokyo, via Senai, Johor Baru, and increased our flights between Pudong, Shanghai, and Amsterdam to twice a week. "We have also increased our charter business from China to Europe as well as to new destinations never served before. For instance, last month, we provided a charter flight service from Melbourne to Djibouti," Shahari said. On the home front, MASkargo will begin a "multi-million-ringgit" project to expand its cargo capacity at the Advanced Cargo Centre (ACC) at KL International Airport in Sepang by the year-end. "We plan to increase our cargo handling capacity to one million tonnes a year within the next three to four years, from 650,000 tonnes at present, by improving our processes. The expanded facility will cater for our requirements for the next 10 years," Shahari said. MASkargo expects to handle 600,000 tonnes of cargo at the ACC this year, down from 620,000 tonnes last year. However, it anticipates an increase of at least 10 per cent in cargo volume next year. Source: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/MKAGO19-2/Article/index_html Maybe they should convert some of MAS' old 744's to F configuration. Or they can buy those parked MD-11's from Transmile.

SEPANG, Oct 20 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airport Holdings Bhd (MAHB) expects passenger volume to grow by between three and four per cent by year-end. Its managing director, Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid, said although it expected either a five per cent drop in passenger volume or a stagnant growth, it was fortunate that there was an increase in tourism volume. "Tourism here is doing well even during the downturn. "Last year, we experienced a growth of about five per cent, or around 45 million (passengers) in all our airports. This year we expect to have around 47 million," he told a press conference here Tuesday. Bashir said MAHB was expected to attract two more airlines by year-end. He, however, declined the name the airlines. Earlier, MAHB's five international airports became the first in Asia to receive the Safety Management System (SMS) certification in compliance with the International Civil Aviation Organisation's (ICAO) recommendation and the Department of Civil Aviation's advice. Bashir said MAHB would implement the system at all its domestic airports even though it was not required by ICAO. The SMS certification indicates conformance with safety requirements and continuous improvement in safety performance including essential features such as policy, strategy and planning, implementation, promotion, documentation, staff training and competency. Bashir said he was "very proud" because MAHB's success was achieved using local know-how. The five certified airports are Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Penang International Airport, Langkawi International Airport, Kota Kinabalu International Airport and Kuching International Airport. Source: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=448169

BTU runway is 2,745m while SBW has a 2,754m runway. So I guess they can both take widebodies as far as the runway length is concerned. With this agreement, they will need to install CIQ facilities before the international flights can commence.

Agree. Besides most of these airports will not be able to take the B772 that SQ operates.