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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.

If you have a good ISP, you may try watching it online: http://www.sidereel.com/Danger_Men/_search?q=season+1+episode+3&x=25&y=6

AirAsia Bhd affiliate Thai AirAsia will be making a profit for financial year 2009, its chief says. "We are definitely making a profit for the year. How much of a profit ... will depend on the load factor in the fourth quarter of the year," Thai AirAsia chief executive officer Tassapon Bijleveld told Business Times on the sidelines of the Frost & Sullivan Growth, Innovation and Leadership Congress 2009 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Both AirAsia's affiliates, Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia, saw their cash flow dragged down by exceptional costs totalling RM429 million in the fiscal year ended December 31 2008 due to the unwinding of fuel hedges and interest rate swap contracts. Thai AirAsia registered losses in the second quarter ended June 30 2009 at RM8.2 million. It achieved an average load factor of 78 per cent for the last three quarters of the year. Tassapon attributed this to the four new destinations it started servicing this year. Thai Airasia expects a load factor of between 82 per cent and 85 per cent for the fourth quarter. Tassapon also said that the airline was on track to meeting this year's target of 5.2 million passengers. Thai AirAsia currently runs 16 planes, out of which six are B737-300s. It will have 18 planes by the year-end. On AirAsia's plans to redeploy new A320s to its Thai and Indonesian affiliates, Tassapon said he was more than happy to receive them. "AirAsia, being the parent, receives priority on aircraft deliveries. Since they have already got 42, it's our turn now," he said. Source: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/pthai-2/Article/index_html

Well D7 has been toying with the idea of 1 stop services ever since the A340-300 planes that they need have become very rare due to the delays to the B787. They are also looking at going to New Zealand by extending their Melbourne and Gold Coast flights. Paris will also be one stop via their virtual hub at Abu Dhabi.

AirAsia X in talks over KL-Oakland service Business Times reports: LONG-HAUL low-cost carrier (LCC) AirAsia X is in talks with the Americans to launch a Kuala Lumpur-Oakland service, possibly via Taipei or Incheon in Seoul, according to a Standard & Poor's report. Aviation analyst Shukor Yusof wrote in his note to investors that the Oakland International Airport had confirmed that it was in talks with AirAsia X. The report said that AirAsia's future forays into France and the US underscore its evolving business strategy of an LCC into a hybrid airline that blends traits of a budget carrier with those of a full- service airline. Shukor said the Oakland airport was attracted to AirAsia as passengers would be able to connect easily to US LCCs. "What that means, probably, is that US LCCs might get into the international act, too. JetBlue is one candidate. It has a deal with Lufthansa already. And, in recent weeks, Virgin America announced it had inked a deal with South African Airways," he said. Source: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/paas-2/Article/

Great night shots! Very nice "green" livery - good that JAL is taking up the cause!

Yes, another group of people with personal agendas! I dare say that although AirAsia has not yet suffered an air crash with loss of life, it will happen sooner or later - that is a statistical certainty. Even Singapore Airlines, highly respected for its professionalism and safety record did not escape that. This looks like a rather stale story. Currently, the AirAsia group operates only about 16 Boeing 737-300s (all of them by Thai & Indonesia AirAsia) and all of them are scheduled to be phased out by next year. Finally, the fact that some of their planes are grounded for long periods of time does indicate that safety is taken seriously and planes are not put into service if there are defects that may cause loss of life. So lets move on, this is a non issue...

This is the payback for doing national service with the Lotus F1 team...

Source: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Germania/Boeing-737-329/1589920/M/

Does anyone know if work on the new, permanent LCCT has started? Looks like the MAHB are way behind schedule now!

Thanks for sharing your pix and videos - this makes the coverage more comprehensive. Even the newspapers don't have Norman's bird's eye view of the traffic situation! Only thing missing are their departure pix. Did anyone catch them?

I am still trying to recover from the excitement of last week! You need to look at the pix published in a.net and learn what kind of quality they are looking for. They have guidelines for you. You will note that our Malaysian Wings contributors like Capt Radzi, Chaity, etc. are very successful because they have the kind of quality pix that a.net is looking for. Its not about what camera you use, it is more about the quality of the pix that you submit.

It would be the insurance company's call.

In Malaysia we do not have an air display season like they do in Europe and America during the summer months. So it is hard to justify spending money on grandstands. But I think it would be good if RMAF can rent some grandstand seats in future airshows. That will also ensure more people can be accommodated. The kids should also have ear muffs to protect them from the loud noise.

On the Friday display, Thunderbird 4 was the two seater. The team took off from SZB at about 9.25 am this morning, did a farewell flypast over KL and headed for Guam. Yes, I am sure all of us here would like to thank the USAF for making last week one that we will not forget!

Yes, it was quite blustery on Friday and one of the Thunderbirds (I think No 4) glided for so long down the runway before settling down! Malaysians are quite starved of air shows like these. When I finally got out of the airbase some 3 hours after the show ended, I saw many people still hanging around the runway perimeter hoping for more!

Spotted wearing standard D7 livery at Toulouse by A.net's T.Laurent, XXC (bearing test reggo F-WWKI): Source: http://www.airliners.net/photo/AirAsia-X/Airbus-A330-343X/1586556/M/

Yes hard to imagine there were so many people! That was why you had to wait 2 hours to get out of the TUDM Subang airbase carpark! I think that they moved the barriers forward when they realised that there were too many people in there! That was good as there were many children in the crowd and we don't want to see crush incidents happening.

Agree 100% with you - now I wonder who has news of their departure. If some of us can cover that, then we will have a complete record! I think that if you were there on Friday, it had the best weather (despite the haze) for photography. Whilst it was a pity you did not make it on Saturday, I think that you will be happy that the rest of the "crew" here have shared their pix with all of us. It was nice meeting so many of you and to see such great coverage of the USAF Thunderbirds 2009 Far East Tour! Sorry to hear that you had car problems - maybe you can ask the Thunderbirds' technical crew how they manage to keep everything running all these 50+ years of air displays without a single cancellation due to maintenance problems! Very good to hear you had a great day! Now you will need to study your results and know how to repeat the formula for the successful pix. You also need to analyse the failures and try not to repeat the errors again!

The Star report: SUBANG JAYA: A sterling display of aerial precision and skill by the Thunderbirds, the US Air Force (USAF) aerial demonstration team, kept more than 150,000 spectators here enthralled. More here: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/4/nation/4840444&sec=nation

To be fair, all the dustbins were full! But yes, the rubbish should have been taken home for proper disposal!

Yesterday, we spoke to some of the team and they said they are going back to Guam! They also said they are leaving on Monday. I guess the first C-17 departs today so that they can receive the incoming planes.