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For that we will have to wait for the official announcement - maybe at the Paris Air Show later this month. B787 is a nice plane and it comes into market earlier too. But it will probably cost more. A further complication is the crew needed to operate the plane will need additional training and certification since the B787 is different from D7's current A330-340's - all that adds up to cost. I think it will probably cost less to intro the A350 as compared to the B787. Low cost carriers like to shy away from unnecessary costs.

Major obstacles with Japanese govt. and airports. So it will take some time before Japan can be done!

By Siva Govindasamy AirAsia X, the Malaysia-based long-haul low-cost airline, is likely to place an order for the Airbus A350 shortly as part of its expansion plans. The carrier, an associate of Southeast Asian short-haul low-cost airline AirAsia, had been deliberating between the A350 and the Boeing 787. However, AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes says that it has made a decision. "We have pretty must settled on the A350 and an announcement is imminent," says Fernandes. "It is clearer in our mind that the A350 is a replacement for the [Airbus] A340s. It can last longer on the 4-8h mark that is AirAsia X's focus." He did not say how many aircraft would be ordered, but AirAsia X has said before that it could buy up to 25 aircraft. A timeline for the delivery of the A350s has not been established. AirAsia X will eventually have a fleet mix of Airbus A330s and A350s, says Fernandes, who added in an interview with Airline Business that this would help it to serve the the bulk of its growth markets that are within a 4-8h mark out of Kuala Lumpur. This includes destinations in Japan, South Korea, Australia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, India and China. AirAsia has a 16% stake in the long-haul operation. Aero Ventures, which Fernandes started with other prominent Malaysians and Air Canada's Robert Milton, owns 48% of the long-haul operation. The other investors are Richard Branson's Virgin Group [16%], Bahrain's Manara [10%] and Japan's Orix [10%]. "AirAsia X is a wonderful addition; it brings the brand to another level. Look, it is sexier flying to London and Melbourne than Bandung," says Fernandes. "But without AirAsia's short-haul market and the connectivity to Southeast Asia it offers, there would be no AirAsia X. That is why it will be hard for anyone else to emulate it. Look at Oasis Hong Kong - what else did they offer apart from flights to London? Is it any surprise that they had to shut down?" Source: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...s-imminent.html

The sliding seats will be gone - the new seats will be similar to those used on the AK A320s but with D7's larger 31" pitch.

I find the narrow A333 seats very uncomfortable - their A320's seats are better for my body size and shape. If I fly D7 again, it will be on their A340 or next year's A333s as they have different seats compared to the current fleet. Otherwise I have to pay more for the XL seats.

Well AK decided to clean up its balance sheet with a one time hit last year. MAS did not and is still paying the price of its fuel hedging in 2009. So the two companies have used different strategies - not easy to compare unless you know the breakdown of the numbers. Perhaps if you just look at the operational numbers just to compare operational statistics. Note that the AK Q1 2009 numbers also include one off gains not from operations. Obviously, AK has a more active and aggressive treasury management department to make the money from forward bookings work harder.

XAA was D7's first aircraft - its livery was the same as AK's. With XXA, XXB and XAB, D7 have some newer ideas to try out!

If I remember correctly, Airbus Tianjin currently has a production rate of 4 aircraft per month. Initially all production has been earmarked for Chinese airlines. I am sure that when Airbus increase the production rate, non-Chinese orders may be fulfilled from this assembly plant.

But China was also responsible for the tainted milk and Mattel toy disasters. It goes without saying that proper QA must be in place, if one is to get good quality products (from anywhere in the world). Where a product is made in is not terribly important. The quality of workmanship is...

Yes, and most airlines use more than one aircraft type. Mix in cargo and other traffic and you have a very interesting time there. Maybe we shud organise a dedicated spotting trip there sometime!

Ouside CX office.. the minibus picked up some people there...

For me the age of the plane and the airline's safety record matter quite a bit. So I will only take MAS T7 flights right now... For domestic, I would prefer to use Firefly or AirAsia as their fleet is more or less brand new. Having said that, even brand new planes do crash - one cannot guarantee safety.

Was at Marriott Skycity - runway 25R was used for landing that day. It was horrible spotting weather - very hazy and light was not great. I managed to grab this one outside the airport. Sorry about the extremely tight crop, was in a minibus and it was a grab shot!

Those PW JT8D engines are rather noisy on take off. Surprising that they can still operate out of SIN!

Yes, AK had the Man U logojet but still does not operate to Manchester to date! Anyway, I think that D7 is already making early linkages with the US market and a logojet is one way to go about it.

A couple from my casual spotting session from my hotel room!

I remembered that last year Tiger had the "zero fees and taxes" promo and the fare is only RM 69. That is the same as the current AK promo where the "zero fare" tickets resulted in an average of RM 140 for a return flight. But it will cost more if you have luggage and you want to choose seats.

FOC seats to Hangzhou, Gold Coast, Melbourne and Hong Kong all gone. Tianjin, Perth and Macau also almost habis. Looks like this time, bookings are not moving so fast.

Just checked - zero fare flights still available for 6 Feb. RM 140 return.

Yes, that is why Tony Ferndandes is looking for a Head of Ancillary Income. Treasury management is very important to make the forward booking revenues work to earn even more income.

Yes, there are very limited "free" seats on each flight. Basically, pax who book later subsidise the pax who book earlier. So these "promos" are nothing to shout about because instead of quietly offering the earliest bird the zero fare ticket AK uses this as a chance to milk media coverage.... For people like me, the announcements will ensure that I know I have a good chance of getting these fares. I just came back from Hong Kong on a ticket booked in August last year. 2 pax for around RM 750 return. Next year, 4 pax can go for less than that! Amazing!

Today I booked 2 flights for 4 pax to Macau and (return from) Hong Kong for travel next year. Total cost, less than RM 700. AK is getting cheaper, if you can manage to snag the seats!

If you look at the results, AirAsia's operations are healthy. They decided to take all losses from fuel hedging and interest rate swaps into last year's accounts so that they have a clean balance sheet for 2009. Don't be surprised if AirAsia posts big profits in 2009, if oil prices don't go up. I think AirAsia needs to strengthen their treasury team - that is why Tony Fernandes has put priority to that. He is recruiting a Head of Ancillary Income in his blog and in Facebook and Twitter. This is an area that can contribute to the group's income and profits as AirAsia has substantial income from forward bookings. They need to make the money work harder and generate returns even before the passenger flies. I think AirAsia's main challenge is the red tape of the Malaysian and foreign governments. I am not confident that the permanent LCCT will be built on time. MAHB works like a govt. department, i.e. slow and illogical decision making... So it has to be more inventive in making the low cost model work. AirAsia's core operations looks OK but the non-airline operations part of things is putting the brakes on its expansion. Tune Money is another worry as it failed to take off. Now they are tying up with CIMB. If Tune Money can contribute more to the group, then things can improve. AirAsia needs all its group companies to pull their weight. Then it will definitely be a huge success.

The F14 and MiG 29's are both relatively old fighters now, the F14 is 1970's technology while the MiG 29 is roughly half a generation later, an 1980's design. So I wonder what the US and Malaysian air forces learnt that they did not know already.

Lots of information on the history of AF1 here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Force_One