flee

The SKYTRAX World Airline Awards celebrated their tenth anniversary with around 500 people attending the 2009 Awards ceremony in Hamburg to see the winning airlines receive their accolades. Edward Plaisted (CEO of Skytrax) handed out awards in 34 categories - the winners being selected by the airline industry's most important audience, it's customers. More than 16 million air travellers drawn from over 95 different nationalities took part in the 8 month long survey. The awards are recognised around the world for being the only true global independent passenger survey of airline standards. The survey does not receive any third party sponsorship and is entirely funded by Skytrax. The Skytrax World Airline Awards recognise the importance of the low cost airline sector, and this was a major part of the passenger survey. AirAsia was named the Worlds Best Low Cost Airline for 2009, ahead of Air Berlin (2nd) and easyJet (3rd). "AirAsia is not only one of the pioneering low cost airlines in Asia, but also the first pure low cost to launch long haul operations (having recently started flying between Malaysia and the UK) and many will be watching this carefully to see if such transformation can be successful" said Plaisted. Malaysia Airlines took the title of Worlds Best Cabin Staff, this being an amazing achievement and represents the 6th time they have secured this top Award in ten years. To have achieved such continuous success is a proud moment for Malaysia Airlines and bears great testament to the hard work of all their front line staff. Malaysia Airlines CEO, Idris Jala, was delighted and proud of his cabin crew, stating that "they have showcased Malaysian hospitality at its best, treating our customers as valued guests in our own home". Full report here: http://www.airlinequality.com/news/030409_CathayPacific.htm

Airbus engineers have applied for a US patent on a wing root fairing technology the company says can reduce the drag penalty that comes from installing larger engines on existing airframes. Speculation has been growing that the company may be considering installing larger diameter Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan (GTF) engines on a new and improved Airbus A320, a move that would require the aircraft to accommodate the GTF's larger diameter fans. Airbus has denied any intent to do so however. More (including drawings) here: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/...ngine-drag.html

Historically airlines have been flag carriers. Even in the land of opportunity, they still had Pan Am carrying their flag. However, new generation airlines are increasingly owned by private entrepreneurs - as such they are neither government owned nor funded. AirAsia is one of these new generation airlines. They are looking to be innovative to gain some competitive advantage. It is not surprising that they want to be the first airline in ASEAN to fly the ASEAN flag!

Melaka airport is in a disadvantageous position. It is too near to KLIA and Senai. If the Melaka CM wants more people to fly to Melaka, he has to offer a better state for people to visit. I was in Melaka in December and frankly, it is not somewhere I would visit frequently! I think other cities in Malaysia have much more to offer!

I find that www.klia.com.my is a terrible website as far as the flight arrivals/departure information is concerned. The website is not updated properly and the information displayed is incomplete. This is made all the more acute when you start perusing other airport websites like Perth, Stansted, Changi, Bangkok or Gold Coast airports. Their information is as live as airport displays. Does anyone know why KLIA is so tardy when it comes to updating their flight information on their website?

Yes, later on in the article, they reported:

SINGAPORE, 31 March 2009 – Banking on the success of its 4 new routes between Indonesia and Singapore, AirAsia is now looking at adding more routes to the island-city in 2009, said its Group CEO Tony Fernandes. Inaugural flights between Singapore and Indonesian cities of Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta and Bali took off on 24 March 2009, recording forward bookings of 80,000 so far. AirAsia is the only airline flying the Singapore-Bandung route and is the first low-fare airline to service the Singapore-Yogyakarta sector. AirAsia’s first route between Indonesia and Singapore was from Pekanbaru, which commenced in August last year. Apart from Indonesia, AirAsia currently flies between Singapore and the Malaysian cities of Kuala Lumpur (7 daily flights), Kuching (1) and Kota Kinabalu (1), as well as Bangkok (4) and Phuket (1) in Thailand. These bring AirAsia’s total number of weekly flights to and from Singapore to 140. “Singapore is very special to AirAsia and we consider it a virtual hub. AirAsia’s latest Indonesia-Singapore link forms the final piece of our network jigsaw puzzle as it resembles the importance of the AirAsia network, making it the most powerful in Asia. Currently, we have a combined total of 10 routes connecting Singapore and we are looking at introducing at least 3 more new routes this year. Based on our projections, we will carry a total of 2 million guests to and from Singapore in 2009,” said Fernandes. AirAsia is considering a number of cities to be linked to Singapore and among the destinations in the pipeline are Penang and Langkawi in Malaysia, as well as Medan and Surabaya in Indonesia. AirAsia will also increase the frequencies of some of the existing routes to Singapore this year. “Given the current economic climate, this positive link between these new services is indeed such an encouraging response. Greater connection to both countries would not only boost economic growth by providing better access to markets but also enhance links within travel, trade and tourism. It is also a perfect match as both hubs, Singapore and Indonesia are able to feed traffic to the cities, connect to other points serviced by AirAsia’s extensive routes and international destinations serviced by AirAsia’s long-haul affiliate, AirAsia X via the Kuala Lumpur hub. This initiative will also help the pace of integration between Indonesia and Singapore in particular, and bridge ASEAN closer by enabling intra-Asean travel with AirAsia’s connectivity and route network via our strategic hubs in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand,” added Fernandes. Meanwhile, Mr. Dharmadi, CEO of Indonesia AirAsia commented: “These new routes signify our effort in realizing the open skies policy. Despite the economic uncertainties, Indonesia still recorded the largest number of tourist arrivals to Singapore among Asean countries. This good indication of strong growth will definitely instill integration between Indonesia and Singapore, and to enable intra-Asean travel with AirAsia’s connectivity and route network via our strategic hubs in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.” “Indonesians and Singaporeans share a lot of similarities due to historic linkages and family connections between the 2 countries. With our excellent network, the Indonesian masses will benefit from these new services as Singapore’s Changi Airport is a main gateway which connects to not only other international routes which AirAsia flies to, but also to other parts of the world. Singaporeans on the other hand, will have access to more low-cost alternatives to international routes and additional destinations in not only Indonesia but also the rest of Asean,” concluded Mr. Dharmadi Source: http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/pressRel...c30560-f6fdd8e0

Hehehehe, but it does not count - they are looking for names of their new A333's, 3 this year and 3 next year. Ideally there should be a theme linking these two lots of three names...

Could be this:

BKI is already the hub for East Malaysia and is serving KCH. Besides KCH is also served by KUL, SIN, and other regional hubs - so it is already a virtual hub. Hubs must have sufficient passenger traffic for their routes to justify their existence.

It will be back today and its cabin will have the same seats as XXA and XXB. D7 launches new Tianjin route next week. (2 April).

Hub means they have an operations centre there, i.e. flight, cabin and operations staff, plus the aircraft. So it is a base rather than somewhere to fly into and out of with 25 mins turnaround time.

Singapore looks like a virtual hub as they also take flights from Thai and Indonesia Air Asia in addition to the 7 daily flights from Malaysia Air Asia. So Changi sees a lot of Air Asia traffic these days.

Agree, when they have the second A343, then they can mount 5 flights a week to JFK from STN. However, it will be a long, long flight if the pax start their journey from KUL! And as Azran has said, getting the rights will be a big challenge because D7 is neither a British nor American carrier... That aircraft, regn C-GDVZ, should be it as it was in storage by AC. This should become 9M-XAC when it joins the D7 fleet. In the long run D7 is really looking at the A350 - Tony Fernandes was in Toulouse last week for meetings with Airbus.

According to the Airbus website, aircraft range: A330-300: 10,500 km A340-300: 13,350 (13,700) km A340-500: 16,100 (16,700) km A340-600: 14,360 (14,600) km

I think that they are having problems with the Japanese airports' ground handling arrangements. AAX wants to do their own handling but were told that they had to use ANA/JAL handling services (at high cost). That will not make economic sense - so more barriers need to be broken.