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Cheng Long

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Posts posted by Cheng Long

  1. Posted · Report reply

    If the airline keeps making "hard and unpopular decisions", then it's no wonder it's losing customers..

     

    Why not some popular decisions? For instance, they talked about reviewing the seats on the new planes, now no news also.. Plus why not increase frequency to routes that have potential to make money. Good frequency in itself is an attraction.. Why not improve the website (especially enrich)? If they really want to make "hard and unpopular decisions", then why not make "hard and unpopular decisions" to cronies by removing them and renegotiating lop-sided contracts?

     

    So the new management has not impressed me a bit.

  4. Posted · Report reply

    AK's LCC model cannot afford to have that kind of luxury. It tries to keep things as simple as possible to reduce costs, e.g. operating only 1 aircraft type throughout the whole network.

     

    While it is possible to park your planes elsewhere, will its first morning flight be the normal 80% full flight or will it carry only 20 pax? What about the cost of having tech crews at the airport? AK does not have that many fully crewed hubs around the country.

     

    AK and MH use different operating models and AK watches its costs carefully so that it does not bleed unnecessary. This is one of the measures that the new MH may need to adopt so as to reduce and stop the billion RM losses.

     

     

    In a sense, Air Asia is just shifting the cost to someone else. In this case, it's MAHB. Air Asia doesn't want to have fully crewed hubs around the country to save cost, they park their planes in LCCT at night.

     

    Parking space becomes an issue, so need to build a massive airport..Massive airport costs a bomb... But it shouldn't be a problem if both parties came to an understanding but TF turned around and shot MAHB, angry at the airport tax hike, their staffs start putting on protest stickers, passengers also encouraged to protest.. Initially also implying MAHB corrupt and excessive by building a 45m capacity airport before the dirty laundry got thrown back at him..All these to win some cheap publicity..

     

    And yes, I also feel that the MH/AK share swap is kind of to protect Air Asia.. Competition gets too hot to handle..

  7. Posted · Report reply

    Brief summary..

    We will have KLIA2 which can handle more pax than KLIA, comes with a third runway, aerobridge, advanced baggage handling system, moving walkways, fancy designs with a bridge, large retails area, premium lounge, hotels and etc.

     

    But significantly cheaper airport tax than KLIA..What more with AirAsia refusing to pay for the hike.. I think MAS should move to KLIA2 also to cut cost.

     

    My linkhttp://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/dap-asks-why-klia2-must-cater-for-a380s/

  11. Posted · Report reply

    AirAsia ignores airport tax increase

     

    PETALING JAYA (Nov 25, 2011): Budget carrier AirAsia Bhd said it will continue to ignore the government-imposed airport tax hike on departing international passengers at the current low cost-carrier terminal (LCCT) in Sepang, in an act of defiance against the move.

     

    The higher airport tax rate came into effect 10 days ago.

     

    In a post on its Facebook fan page yesterday, AirAsia head of commercial, Jasmine Lee, said the carrier will continue to lobby the government "not in favour of the airport tax rise".

     

    It blamed airport operator Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB) over the move to increase airport charges, saying the poor facilities at the LCCT does not justify the increase.

    "Look at the queue at the immigration, space for check-in counters, quality of toilets, cleanliness of the facilities — is it really worth the increase?" Lee said.

     

    In an earlier posting on Wednesday, AirAsia regional head of commercial, Kathleen Tan, said: "You (MAHB) can increase if you improve the facilities. I don't see the justification for it as our guests (passengers) are the ones paying for it, and it costs more to fly now."

     

    Airlines like AirAsia collect the airport tax on behalf of MAHB.

     

    MAHB had on Oct 27 received the Transport Ministry's nod to raise the airport tax on international passengers from Nov 15. Under the move, departing international passengers at the LCCT in Sepang and Terminal 2 Kota Kinabalu have to pay RM32, up RM7 from RM25 previously.

     

    According to industry observers, the move by AirAsia is unprecedented.

     

    "They (AirAsia) would have to sort the matter out with the Transport Ministry as any increase or decrease in airport charges are within the latter's purview, and not MAHB," said an observer.

     

    "Back in 2007, the Transport Ministry was also the one who halved the airport tax at the LCCT from RM51 to RM25 for international passengers and from RM9 to RM6 for domestic passengers," he added.

     

    Source

     

    Amazing.. Are they allowed to do that?

    MAS should ignore the hike also for the same argument..

  14. Posted · Report reply

    How much of virgin jungle still remain in Sarawak?

     

    5-10% maybe.. Different people will tell you different figure.. the gov will probably tell you it's 90% as they are protecting the rainforest.. But when you fly around in twin otter, you see everywhere is oil palm plantation and bald spots thanks to logging..

  17. Posted · Report reply

    The KLIA EAST@Labu thing was very fishy from the start. It was approved by the cabinet..Must be some closed door dealings.. Our famed sleepy Pak Lah was PM at that time... But when the news came out, there was a public uproar namely cause KLIA is underutilized and Labu will make it an even whiter elephant. Dr M was also foaming at the mouth. The gov then reversed the decision and Pak Lah pretended didn't know anything..It seemed there were unhappy factions within BN who also wanted a share of the pie.

     

    No doubt, we need a new terminal for LCC. So now we have KLIA2. Closer to the KLIA itself, which is all good... But then things get messy when they start adding on all the frills, fancy design here and there, new runway.. They should just keep it simple, no frills and with basic functions. Get it done and ready. Everyone happy (maybe except for cronies)

  20. Posted · Report reply

    Just flew with MH Perth-KL-Penang return.. The Perth-KL part was like 50% full...Most were caucasians..

     

    Cost cutting were quite obvious.. It's like each time I flew with them, something is missing.. No more towels, then no menu cards, then leg rest removed, less movies, some aesthetically hopeless pillow cover.. less drink rounds.. And no ice cream this time (they used to serve ice cream after meal).

     

    Having said that, the flight was good cause I got several seats to myself.. It's like that's their selling point now.

     

    MH really need to tackle their core problems, not some window dressing turnarounds, cut routes here and there.. If not, they will close shop... And too much turnaround, you will end up at the same place..

     

    Also I feel that MH should focus more on high yielding overseas market..ie people who are willing to pay more for quality products.. Malaysians in general are demanding yet stingy..Hard to please.

  22. Posted · Report reply

    MAS should downsize its staff by getting rid of rotten apples, particularly those in the management... including TF as he doesn't seem to offer any benefit to MAS, more like a thorn and sabotage job.

     

    I don't think they should downsize their routes though.. Their network is not big to start with.. If they cut routes, they should open new ones. Otherwise what are they going to do with the planes?

     

    MAS can emulate JAL.. but the Japanese got rid of their age old ruling party first whom they felt to be incompetent and corrupt.. Maybe we should get rid of BN first and see if there will be meaningful changes..

  23. Posted · Report reply

    The jet service was losing money while the turboprop service was profitable - I saw numbers like RM 50m losses in 6 months being quoted.

     

    MAS is bleeding to the tune of more than RM 5m a day in Q2 2011 and it was urgent to stop this bleeding.

     

    Guess they are allowed to make some losses as they are just starting business. Plus I'm not sure where the RM50m come from.. Air Asia X boss must have got it from somewhere, though he didn't qoute his source..

     

    I believe Air Asia X was not profitable when they first started.. Air Asia Indonesia, Thai also made losses.. BTW how much profit are they making now?

  24. Posted · Report reply

    QUit for what??? That was his mission from day one!!!! Go Tony Go!

     

    If he hates MAS so much and want to destroy them, I have no problem with that.. Let them fight and go for each other's throat. But do it fair a bit la.. No dirty tricks.. I am all for healthy competition.. I used to admire him a lot in the early days.. Not anymore.. He is one sly greedy man.. Lost all my respect.

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