flee

They have advertised that they are using "brand new" A333's in their Red Alert newsletter. My guess is that they might deploy the A343 to some of the PER flights and that will free the A333 for the TPE flights. Those trial flights earlier this year on XAB surely must have a purpose!

XAA is back in service - so the three aircraft are doing the Australia and China routes. The Malaysian meals provided on the OOL-KUL leg were horrible. There was much chat about that onboard (on the IFE system) and some people actually had tummy discomfort! So it may be better to order western/international meal if the plane is not flying out of LCCT! XAB will be reconfigured next year and they are looking at lie flat seats for the XL section. Not sure what the other seats will be. My guess is that they will have more comfortable seats than the A333.

Mohd. Helmi, I won't dwell into Maybank, etc. cos that is really off topic. I used them as examples to illustrate the fact that MH should not have thoughts of going on the M&A trail unless they have a competent team to manage those acquisitions. It is better they use the cash for fleet renewal, product improvements, and also to hire professional and competent management personnel. Well AK did a good job with AWAIR and they have more or less completed their transformation to become Indonesia Air Asia. Now they just need to get rid of the 20+ year old 737's as their new A320's are delivered.

Well years of neglect (MH has postponed their wide body aircraft acquisition plans again) of their fleet has led to this. What can MH fight back with? I guess only in flight service! :sorry:

Although the seat pitch is 31", the seat cannot recline and one cannot be comfortable in the upright position. Using the seat's sliding mechanism reduces the legroom. In some ways, the A320's seats are better and I understand that the new A333's to be delivered this year (XXC should be with D7 in Sept 09) will have those seats together with 31" seat pitch.

I did the D7 flight to Gold Coast (OOL) in March and on standard seats, it is not a very comfortable experience even though I travelled on their new A333s (XXB out and XXA returning to KUL). The seats are narrow and legroom is not quite enough for a medium haul flight. So if you are more than 1.75m tall, do consider paying extra for a better seat or XL seat. I am glad that their A343 is still using the old AC seats and legroom is good too, even for someone who is tall. I am not sure why you had to pay more than MH for the domestic flight. I have compared fares a number of times and AK is usually cheaper unless you have upsized your luggage a fair bit. Even Firefly costs more than AK sometimes. I guess that on those particular dates, MH might have special fares left...

Realistically, MH should have their planes configured according to their route characteristics. Maybe they should have one set of planes configured for high density economy seating and another lot for more premium seats. That way, they can have flexibility in aircraft deployment to suit market needs.

Hehehehe! Or they cud go the AK way and have 800 black leather seats!

Well most connecting flights in STN end by 1.00 am. If you arrive at 22-23:00, you will probably have to wait till 05-06:00 before making your connection.

I think MH will have tremendous advantage in deciding how to configure the A380. They just need to study the feedback from pax who have travelled on the current fleet. I think MH should put the premium seats on the top deck as it has the quieter cabin. The cheapest seats should be those aft of the jet blast on the lower deck. I think 3 classes is probably sufficient - probably 50 lie flat seats in first class, 100 business class and around 350 economy class.

Congrats on that milestone. Now, onto the next 1,0000! Keep clicking!

Sometimes I wonder why Malaysian companies invest in foreign ones when they clearly do not have the management expertise to make these investments work for them. Two examples I can think of are Genting and Maybank - their foreign investments cost them a lot in terms of capital and also loss making operations. Is MAS capable of managing another airline, when it can't even sort itself out?

Yes that is the current schedule - my bro just took a D7 flight last night and it arrived about 23 mins early this morning, at 7.37 am. He connected to EasyJet flight for Belfast at 11.55 am and that flight arrived 3 mins early too. Not bad for long haul LCC connections! The timetable changes in July - full details here: http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/pressRel...f1c670-35a66810

I just had a look at their flight timings and it does not appear to be as connection friendly at Stansted as the current schedule is - most flights arriving close to midnight. Flights arriving at LCCT are slightly earlier, but maybe D7 wants connecting pax to stay a night at Tune Hotel!

British Air Passenger Duty go up every year with effect from 2009. I think it will go up until it reaches around £200! I can't remember exactly. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelne...l-airports.html

Yes, checked last night and the return fare (no luggage or meals) is around RM 1,300+ if you can get RM 499 in both directions.

1. Existing airlines may hold landing rights that MAS does not have. So it can be advantageous to have these rights. 2. The modern day A333s like those SQ are flying feature RR's latest Trent engines - lots of improvements have been made since the 1990's vintage GE and P&W engines were introduced. Avionics and other electronic systems have also improved leaps and bounds. Some airlines have also specified the same (updated/upgraded) avionics as the A346 and A345 for their A333s.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways, which is cutting capacity dramatically, is in negotiations with Airbus and Boeing to delay delivery of A330, 777-300ER, 747-8 freighter and 747-400ER freighter aircraft on order. Cathay says in a statement it is “in negotiations with manufacturers to defer deliveries of new aircraft and looking into whether to renew aircraft leases that expire”. Full report here: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...t-on-order.html

Frankly, despite what Air Asia advertises, I still would not want to subject my aged father to an Air Asia flight. The LCCT is not the place for elderly and handicapped traveller. I don't mind "suffering" if I save RMs on the flights but it is my choice and would not force it onto anyone else. Each of us should think carefully about flying on Air Asia if we have special requirements. We need to make some rational decisions - some savings are just not worth having!

I think that there is only one MH route that would welcome the A380 and that is the KUL-LHR one. Other routes do not require the huge capacity. MH certainly would not mind taking over the delivery slots of the Qantas B738, if they are for this year. But much depends on Boeing too and whether other airlines are ahead of MH in the queues.

Qantas Airways will defer the delivery of Airbus A380 and Boeing 737-800 aircraft, slash capacity, and cut jobs in response to worsening economic conditions, which have forced the Australian airline to cut its profit forecast drastically for the current fiscal year. The Oneworld alliance carrier says that it will defer the delivery of four A380s by 10-12 months and 12 737-800s for an average of 14 months, and is in talks with Boeing to reduce the delivery of 787-8 aircraft over the near term. In addition, it will ground 10 aircraft and make them available for sale. It is also cutting flying capacity for domestic and international routes by 5% and reducing freight capacity on both as well. More here: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...conditions.html

By Zakaria Abdul Wahab SINGAPORE, April 14 (Bernama) -- Singapore and Malaysia today agreed to expand their bilateral air services agreement to include six more new destinations in Malaysia. They are Ipoh, Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Melaka, Sandakan and Tawau. Both countries also agreed to provide increased traffic rights to existing cities, namely Penang, Langkawi, Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. All the new traffic rights will take effect from June 1, according to Singapore Transport Ministry in a statement today. The ministry said transport officials from the city-state and Malaysia met here today for air services consultations and agreed to expand the bilateral air services agreement between the two neighbours. The new agreement would allow the carriers of both countries the right to operate between Changi Airport and the six destinations, the ministry said. Singapore carriers will also have traffic rights to operate 21 weekly services to Ipoh and 14 weekly services each to Kuala Terengganu, Kuantan, Melaka, Sandakan and Tawau. For existing routes, Singapore carriers will have increased traffic rights to operate a total of 70 services a week to Penang and 27 services a week to Langkawi. Additionally, carriers of both countries are also allowed to operate an additional 14 weekly services between Singapore and each of the East Malaysian cities of Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Transport Ministry Permanent Secretary Choi Shing Kwok, who led the Singapore delegation in the consultations, said the new agreement was important for both countries, as the enhanced connectivity would further boost economic and tourism linkages between the two countries. "This is especially important in the current economic climate," he said. Currently, Singapore carriers operate 106 weekly services to Kuala Lumpur, 18 weekly services to Penang, six weekly services to Langkawi, 17 weekly services to Kota Kinabalu and 16 weekly services to Kuching. -- BERNAMA http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsindex.php?id=404166

That A345 is probably going to be written off due to extensive damage. I think they are waiting for insurance company verdict.

MAHB's raw stats (Excel file) here: http://announcements.bursamalaysia.com/EDM...bruary%2009.xls

KUALA LUMPUR, April 10 (Bernama) -- The number of passengers at the airports operated by Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) fell 9.2 percent to 3.274 million in February 2009 compared to 3.606 million in the same month last year. The number of passengers for the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in Sepang declined 8.9 percent to 1.901 million from 2.087 million a year ago, MAHB said in an announcement on Bursa Malaysia today. It said that international passengers at the country's main airport dropped 8.4 percent to 1.268 million while domestic passengers fell 9.8 percent to 633,378. For other airports operated by the group, international passengers declined 15.2 percent to 201,797 while domestic passengers went down 8.6 percent to 1,171 million. MAHB said that cargo volume also fell in February 2009, by 20.5 percent to 58.967 million kg from 73.855 million kg in the same month last year. International cargo movements at KLIA dropped 21.6 percent to 38.088 million kg while domestic cargo went down 7.9 percent to 3.744 million kg, it said. Cargo movements at the other airports declined 20.6 percent to 16.864 kg, with international cargo down 38.2 percent to 9.096 million kg but domestic cargo rose 19.2 percent to 7.768 million kg. Aircraft movements went down 0.4 percent to 38,714 movements in February 2009, MAHB said. It added that aircraft movements at KLIA rose 1.4 percent to 16,482 but those at other airports declined 1.6 percent to 22,232. -- BERNAMA