flee

Yes, unfortunately that is the present situation - airlines can't do as they like as they are constrained by government. We all look forward to new awards but Malaysia is very low down the list of priority for the Japanese authorities.

Most of Batik Air Malaysia's fleet of B737NGs and B737Maxs are in LCC configuration - so comfort is, at best, at the LCC level. As such, longer flights may be quite uncomfortable.

I think that the peak travel season for those islands would coincide with the northern winter - Phuket (and Phu Quoc) is very popular with Russians seeking winter sun. Slots in HND are awarded by the Japanese govt. and there isn't much airlines can do if they are awarded poor time slots. Daytime slots are impossible as the priority is given to Japanese airlines. A famous former PM has said that you cannot please a certain group of voters all the time but giving them some of their demands means that the various groups in this country can be kept happy. This unity government apparently does not remember this advice.

It looks like its first commercial flight was to NRT! https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/9MMAH

Therein lies the dilemma, MAG just does not have the resources to sustain a purposeful FY. If that is the case, why have it?

Well I think competing with LCCs does not only mean competing on price only. There are so many other aspects of competition that can be addressed. We see Scoot and Singapore Airlines as well as Jetstar and Qantas managing to secure their own businesses without hurting each other. As I said before, FY and MH should be complementing one another and competing in the market together in a coordinated manner. Right now FY just get thrown some crumbs from MH and does not seem to have its own development plans. This is not sustainable!

I think MAG needs to re-strategise their Firefly operations. Right now, it is like the stepchild of MAG. For this they need to look at how SQ group splits the businesses between SQ and TR and perhaps emulate their business model. FY should have bold plans of its own as its competitor is Capital A airlines. They should complement MH instead of getting hand me down routes to operate. They should pioneer innovative LCC routes and they should order their own aircraft and not just take MH hand me downs.

Viewing from the starboard side, all logos align correctly!

Yeah, I think they are trying to go on a route where competition is not so severe. IST is not a good route because D7 has no partner to connect to the rest of Europe and beyond. If it flies to IST, it might as well reintroduce LGW and make it a one stop flight until it gets its new A339s.

What kind of demand is there for this route?

Yes, it was messy because they considered Airasia X to be high risk and are prepared to let it fail. However, they did not want D7's failure to take down AK. But it appears now that they used D7 to take the haircut for AK! The operations side is already started integration as we see both D7 and AK on the same routes. Once the corporate restructuring is done, I guess they routes will be even more shared between them.

AirAsia X gets its wings back Bursa Securities announced today the airline’s classification as a Practice Note 17 (PN17) company will cease with effect from tomorrow. https://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2023/11/21/airasia-x-gets-its-wings-back/

Sounds very much like they signed the lease agreement when they have not even sorted out their finances or business plan. This airline is doomed for failure!

That was why I did not bother to get excited about that. 9M-MVD has undergone customer acceptance flights last week - so maybe the paperwork is now being completed. I don't see any frames listed on the production lists headed for MH yet. So I guess the other deliveries will only come in 2024.

I agree - MAG will operate out of SZB only to compete with operators from that airport. Malindo is not really operating that many flights nowadays and FY might scale down if Malindo exits. So unless SKS can proceed with its E2 plans, I very much doubt MAG wants to be distracted from its KLIA ops.

Yes, maybe I was to quick to say that it is FOC! However, if you are looking for a flight ex-KUL, the fares of the competing airlines are similar to those that require a connection in SIN. This gives the apparent impression that the connecting flights to SIN are sacrificed in order to secure your booking. Pax these days are smarter and know that if they want cheaper flights, they would have to go through the inconvenience of not going on direct flights.

Even now, FY flights out of SZB cannot be considered to be cheap. My guess is that MAG are probably looking at something with 100-130 seats with two class cabins - a bit upmarket from the single class planes of FY.

Yes, the road infrastructure around SZB is absolutely congested and WCT is looking to the govt. for financing the expansion of that. However, the govt. is pretty cool to it. KTM must come up with an at least 3X per hour SZB to Sentral non stop service on the train service if it is to become popular with pax. If these transport issues are not solved, I can't see SZB capable of becoming a super busy airport for regional traffic.

If what you illustrate here is true, then TR is not really interested in developing the route but more as a feeder to the SIA group network. So it is sacrificing profit on this route for the greater aim of profit on other connecting routes in the SIA group network. It is much like the days when KUL-SIN flights were offered FOC to those who were catching long haul SQ flights. Against the post Covid background, air fares have risen significantly and revenge travel demand is starting to fade. AK does not need to offer flythru flights to/from SIN as pax can catch flythru from KUL. As such its MYY-SIN flights are for point to point pax. There are simply not enough such pax.

When MAS were operating from Subang, it made sense then. Now, their main base is KLIA - so it makes sense to have everything based in that ecosystem.

Malaysia Airlines' parent MAG takes delivery of first Boeing 737-8 https://www.nst.com.my/business/corporate/2023/11/979104/malaysia-airlines-parent-mag-takes-delivery-first-boeing-737-8

Interior is the same 12 Business Class and 162 Economy Class seats.

Congratulations Malaysia Airlines. Photo of flypast.