Mike P

Is EK trying to monopolise the A380 operations? I thought SG was the one doing this?

I'm going to Seoul in Mid Jan. Guess my winter clothes would cost more than the air ticket itself... What is that place? I would rather have D7 flying to Jejudo instead... Hmmm...

Kuching - Pontianak route is commenced on 31st Oct 2010, but also not included on the website yet for booking.

AirAsia X has introduced the flights transfer, I wonder if anyone has noticed... Source @ AirAsia

Subang - best choice for city airport Raison D'etre - Risen Jayaseelan ONE idea that should have been given more prominence in the Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), in the context of “Greater KL”, is the creation of a city airport. Specifically, turning the already existing Subang airport into a city airport, with more aircraft plying it, including (albeit, in a limited way), commercial jet aircraft. City airports are a feature of many major cities the world over and they seem to nicely complement their major airports. What sets this idea apart from other transport-related ones in the ETP is that it requires so little to get it started. That’s because we already have a city airport in form. What is needed is a mere tweaking of policies. At present, the Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah Airport in Subang only allows the operations of propeller aircraft (for commercial passenger flights). Turning the Subang airport into a full-fledged city airport does not require the heaps of investments other transport-related plans mentioned in the ETP. Furthermore, it requires very little changes to an already choking city. One just has to imagine the major construction works that will be carried out to build the mass rapid transit system over the next few years. And, the astronomical ball park figure of RM50bil to get that project up and running. Until today, it is unclear who exactly is going to fork that money out. To turn Subang airport into a city airport however, will require a decent dose of political will and careful explanation to interested parties why this is a good idea now. To be sure, this idea is not new. Everyone following the aviation industry will know of that one very entrepreneurial airline industry individual who had lobbied long and hard for his budget airline to use Subang as its base. The idea even then, made perfect sense but it was never to see the light of day, for one reason or another. One of those reasons was a determination by the Government to make KL International Airport (KLIA) a success. Hence the question is, will a move to have a city airport be detrimental to KLIA? From the standpoint of airport operator, Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd (MAHB), the concern will surely be that its earnings from KLIA could be cannibalised from giving Subang more flights. Well, that’s one way of looking at it. Another way to see it is that Subang can play a complimentary role to KLIA, just like how most city airports in bigger cities around the world do. In London, Chicago, New York, Tokyo and Shanghai, the city airports have posed no major threats to the main airports in those cities, as the city airports play a sort of niche and complimentary role. Furthermore, it is very likely that having a city airport would create new revenue streams for MAHB. City airports tend to cater to shorter flights and appeal largely to businessmen and professionals making short flights to attend meetings. A well-located city airport (like the one in Subang) will help reduce regional business travel time significantly, which in turn could enhance productivity levels of Malaysian professionals and businessmen. Subang airport’s transformation into a city airport has other advantages. Since 2008, work had begun to transform it into a modern day airport by its operator Subang Skypark Sdn Bhd, with much success, judging by the growing number of passengers travelling through it. The area is also the home of the Malaysian International Aerospace Centre. It is located not too far away from the KTM Komuter station in Subang Jaya. This poses the possibility, again without a massive amount of capital expenditure, to link the airport up with the city via KL Sentral. Imagine the connectivity and time-savings for a business traveller flying in from say, Bangkok or Singapore for a meeting in Shangri-La hotel in downtown Kuala Lumpur. Hence more little more needs to be done other than a change in government policies, to give this facility a chance to become a full-fledged city airport. Jet aircraft plying Subang however, had been contentious in the past for another reason – some residents of Subang didn’t quite like it, and understandably so. But smaller narrow-bodied jet aircraft should be less offensive to the residents. Also, to be noted is that Subang airport already has jet aircraft flying into it, in the form of private jets and Transmile Group Bhd’s cargo planes. Furthermore, if indeed, Subang airport is made the city airport, the township of Subang should see a multiplier effect as the connectivity would bring in more travellers needing services such as eateries and hotels. Property prices in Subang will also likely to benefit. All that may be needed is careful planning and proper communication and the chances are, there would be more people supporting the idea of making Subang airport, Greater KL’s much needed city airport. ● Deputy news editor Risen Jayaseelan, who lives less than 20km from the Subang airport and who loves to travel into the region, openly declares that his arguments for more flights out of Subang Airport is partly driven by personal interests. Source @ The Star

Flew B777 on CX from KUL to HKG and returned by A330. B777 was relatively old and the A330 business class, not only to say its seats are cramped but it also didn't face right at front, instead at 45 degrees to the left. That just looks sick!

I guess while KUL is busy building its hub and gateway to Middle East area, SIN is busy building its hub and gateway to Europe.

Nop, MH can't do that. It will demote its status as five star airlines.

Tuesday October 12, 2010 AirAsia X: Malaysia losing billions in air travel sector PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is losing billions of ringgit for not having sufficient flights to popular travel destinations such as Sydney and Jeddah, said AirAsia X Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Azran Osman Rani. “There are a lot of destinations that we are losing out in terms of the opportunity cost and people have to pay more to go to places such as Sydney, Jeddah and Istanbul because they don’t have a choice. It’s costing the country a lot of money,” he told reporters on the sidelines after the StarBiz-ICR Malaysia forum yesterday. “The most popular routes where Malaysia is losing billions of ringgit for not allowing us (AirAsia X) to fly there are Sydney, Jeddah and Istanbul.” Azran said the routes, other than being popular travel destinations, were also prominent “economic centres” that promoted investment flows. Meanwhile, on Budget 2011, Azran said: “We’re less concerned about taxes or subsidies. We’re more concerned about the Government creating a level playing field. We’d like to see policies that encourage competition and therefore innovation. “One thing that Malaysia needs as an economic strategy is to remove the monopolistic and protectionist barriers and allow companies to compete.” The Government will table its Budget 2011 in Parliament this Friday. Azran also said he is hopeful that the Government would announce incentives at the Budget that would promote the local tourism industry. “For this industry to grow, Malaysia really needs to think about promoting itself and having much better infrastructure for tourism, such as public transportation. “This needs to be resolved to the extent that there are resources and budget allocations towards improving taxis (services) and allowing Tourism Malaysia to promote themselves better.” Source @ The Star Apparently D7 is very not happy...

I thought the service is totally suspended? So they only reduce the frequency?

KK Lee, I don't understand with your "profit guarantee". Do you mean the government will intervene fully in this matter to ensure and protect FY to be granted with "profit guarantee" on the domestic route? Such approach sounds like restriction is going to incure on AK. E.g. AK plies 11 times daily on KUL - KCH. Does it mean the government has to order AK to reduce frequency at once and increase surcharge on this route so that FY can ply more frequencies and offer lower cost?

Let all the airliners compete healthly without restriction and prejudice over each other. Only this can help the growth of KLIA to be the major hub in the region. It just happened to Singapore imposes no restriction on Qantas to expand their Kangaroo routes with Airbus 380.

I guess it would be more appropriate and accurate if they input "new".

MAS will be taking delivery of its first B737-800 aircraft next week from Seattle, the United States. Are you kidding me?

I believe business is business, nothing personal but business. There's no way for a company to lead a money losing approach or business unless it's a risk that could be taken to turn around the business.

Malaysia Airlines / Royal Jordanian launch codeshare service 20100928 by jimyvr Leave a Comment Malaysia Airlines since 01SEP10 has started placing its “MH” code on Royal Jordanian’s service on Amman – Kuala Lumpur route (via Bangkok). Codeshare flight numbers below: Route MH Codeshare RJ Operating Kuala Lumpur – Bangkok – Amman MH9195 RJ181 Amman – Bangkok – Kuala Lumpur MH9194 RJ180 http://airlineroute.net/2010/09/28/mhrj-codeshare/

The visa waive thingy is actually depending on the diplomatic relationships between the nations. Malaysia is ranked 13th in the world if I were not mistaken, still ahead of Hong Kong and Australia. Anyway, I managed to seek the 2011 New Year Countdown flights, departing on 28th Dec and returning on 2nd Jan. It's very tempting but I didn't book it for I've planned the trip to Seoul in mid January 2011.

No doubt Singapore & Brunei prove themselves better nations to gain entry to other nations. They basically do not require visa to enter USA & Japan, and even China for 14 days.

Singaporean does not require visa to gain entry to Japan, Malaysian on the other hand requires visa.

In my opinion, LHR & AMS are rational destinations to be served with A380. These two cities are MH codeshare Hubs, LHR by British Midland while AMS by KLM. SYD is logical to tackle the kangaroo route and to compete with Singapore Airlines and also other regional airlines serving the kangaroo routes.

MH did announce to drop Stockholm and Newark route. However, there were particular routes being dropped off and they didn't even bother to announce. Just recently, they have dropped off direct BKI - SIN route too.

Seems like once the CEO has changed, MAS immediately plumped into loss.

AK uses A330 to ply on KL - KCH route once per day until the end of Nov.