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flee

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Posts posted by flee

  1. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Craig said:

    HND slots are awarded by Japan MOT (or their equivalent). But the cherry from the Japanese government is HND's daytime slot. Those daytime slots were done through government to government negotiations. HND daytime slots are awarded in pair - one for a Japanese carrier to fly to that recipient country and one slot for the recipient's airline to HND. I can't imagine Japanese carriers lobbying for their government to allow them to fly to IST or CPH/ARN from ARN. Even the Swiss government couldn't wrestle one for LX.

    And you can clearly see some airlines just holding on to their daytime slots (06:00-21:59). Like VA's 21:55 HND-CNS. Or some US bound flights that depart at 21:45-21:50.

    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.

  2. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Craig said:

    Their route map looks very impressive for a "regional" carrier but they do have a habit of selling flights and then canceling them too. I am curious who their target market is because I've rarely seen any billboards or advertisements from them in Malaysia. Flights are cheap and comparable to Air Asia but somehow inflight drinks/meals are missing but includes 20kg luggage on their cheapest tickets. Even MH doesn't offer 20kg on their cheapest ticket.

    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.

  3. Posted · Report reply

    43 minutes ago, Craig said:

    Most people aren't aware that Langkawi, like Phuket, has a distinct high and low season. December to February/March room rates at both are ridiculously high and then falls off a cliff after. 

    I am curious what countries/airports slots did the government fail to negotiate with their counterparts (whether permanent or seasonal). Or in some cases, a better timed slot (HND comes to mind).

    I don't know what the current government wants. In most countries, governing with a 2/3 majority is unthinkable but yet this government wants to pander even more to the conservatives and end up pissing everyone off. They have to realize very soon that no matter how much you pander to them, you aren't them.

    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.

     

  5. Posted · Report reply

    15 hours ago, jahur said:

    Well Singapore already has the upperhand when it comes to forex and currency not to mention Passenger yield as well.

    If MH and FY were to do coordination yields must be there. You cant ask MH to let go half of its flights to FY on the same destination you dont even see SQ deploying flights with scoot on quite a few routes. Those were offloaded in its entirety to scoot something firefly does not even have enough aircraft to do so.

    Mag currently does not have enough finances to procure proper amount of aircrafts to facilitate FY's expansion unlike our neighbors. Thai smiles was also reabsorbed back into thai airways.

    Then on the transfer of flights currently even FY does not allow multi sector check in, many present pending stuff have yet to be addressed.

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

  6. Posted · Report reply

    2 hours ago, jahur said:

    People have been asking MAG to go head to head with the LCC market using its subsidiaries but the problem is the market in Malaysia especially for domestic has been very cut throat. Going for basement fares for multiple months and then hiking up to crazy 200-500% when seats a scarce during peak season to make up for the poor seasons. Airlines are not flexible enough to redact seats and increase seats out of the blue based on demands nobody is also operating spare aircrafts nowadays.

    It still goes back to how this country is promoting itself and improving the economy. At the current pace its heading even duopoly operations is not sustainable for both groups.

    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!

  7. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, jahur said:

    Yes accommodation facilities at east coast Sabah is poor. So not sure how is the plan viable for airlines in the long run. For SDK there's only Four points reopening and Semporna its either overpriced tiny resorts at the sea or low budget homestays. No big chains 4-5 stars anywhere. 

    The thing is FY only plans to operate bases from BKI and PEN. No mention of KUL nor SZB for the 737s. So sectors like KUL-KBR, KUL-TGG, KUL-JHB etc will either be maintained by MH or dropped with no replacement this one is up to MAG to see.

    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.

  8. Posted · Report reply

    22 hours ago, jani said:

    Maybe my eyes are playing tricks, but it really bothers me that on just one side of the plane, there are three different Waus.

    1. The tail Wau, which is non-Italic (I think the retro Wau)

    2. The winglet Wau, which is Italic (The present Wau)

    3. The "Sustainable" something something Wau near the door, which is in the opposite direction of the other Waus,

    Viewing from the starboard side, all logos align correctly!

  9. Posted · Report reply

    3 hours ago, JuliusWong said:

    I read Bernama news article in 2019, almost 15,000 tourists from Kazakhstan visited Malaysia and about 10,000 tourists from Malaysia visited Kazakhstan during the same period. The same goes to Uzbekistan. Rather than fighting with Batik Air and Uzbekistan Airlines on the latter, I guess AirAsia X wants to test Central Asia market with Kazakhstan first. I wonder if Air Astana plans to return to KUL, their return was brought forward to last month but I am not sure if they actually return.

    Also, AirAsia X has been allocated Istanbul (IST) for some time, but no official launch announcement yet. IMO, IST will be very tricky with TK and EK dominating the market. Profit margin will be razor thin. 

    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.

  11. Posted · Report reply

    52 minutes ago, JuliusWong said:

    With the upliftment, AirAsia X can now purchase AirAsia Malaysia to get the latter out of PN17 status and consolidate Malaysia operation under one company. Quite a mess they did there with the organisation structure and Group structure.

    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.

  15. Posted · Report reply

    8 hours ago, jahur said:

    Only likely to get 1 more for this year or if extremely lucky 2. An aircraft out of assembly will usually take 1 month of trials and customer acceptance flight. So far 5 frames have registration booked but only 2 photographed outside with 1 already delivered yesterday. 

    The person who wrote article must've misheard or got the older info during the event. From what i am seeing only MVD will be delivered without delays. 

    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.

  17. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, Pall said:

    Doubt MAG is willing to invest in SZB. Whatever announcements made before for SZB jet ops by MAG was merely running on the hype made by govt to allow jet ops from the city airport. Operating from SZB to routes already operated by MAB from KUL might be seen as cannibalism. The economics of scale might not work.  

    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.

  18. Posted · Report reply

    7 hours ago, Chris Tan said:

    There has never been such thing as a “free” connecting flight. Fares are priced based on O&D. KUL-SIN-LHR for example has always been priced very differently than SIN-LHR. 

    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.

  19. Posted · Report reply

    49 minutes ago, jahur said:

    Something from MAG might be stirring up for SZB and its not something most would expect thats all i could say. It has something to do with probably 1/3 of the open ended 35 narrowbody order thingy(not included the 10 widebody which technically cant fit in szb) that the group plans to order. It is not going to be the 160-180 seater 737/320.

    There will be domestic flights just don't expect it to be multi frequency nor cheaper tickets than going to KUL. I think Loke mentioned they envisioned SZB more towards the premium side and its main aim is to connect ASEAN.

    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.

  20. Posted · Report reply

    1 hour ago, jahur said:

    Overall from what i see SZB reconfiguration and redevelopment will not be for big operation like 30 narrowbody combined parking as what some people might've assume.

    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.

  21. Posted · Report reply

    13 hours ago, Sii Lw said:

    The pricing of TR ex-MYY is extremely enticing, at ~RM90 at times. The timing of TR at MYY also easily allows for red-eye connections from SIN, which I believe TR is aiming for. Loads from MYY is good as far as I know. This had impacted AK, reducing their loads to only ~69% on average even after frequency reduction from x5 to x4 weekly after re-instating post-COVID.
    If it is doomed to fail from day one in MYY, then MYY-SIN sector would've been gone not long after it was introduced in the early 2010s, much like MYY-MNL and MYY-PNK.

    Introduction of E2s to Sarawakian destinations makes very good sense imo, where they can opt for frequency but not seats since most pax are connecting passengers (whether on the same tix or not). Of course, CNY and other important festivals are a different story.

    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.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    6 hours ago, Chris Tan said:

    There go the last vestiges of the "old" MAS, for better or worse. I'd be curious to see what comes of the regional hub plan for SZB.

    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. 

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