KK Lee
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Posts posted by KK Lee
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On 5/6/2020 at 7:52 PM, jahur said:Close it down no problem. Be sure to maintain flights and sectors and avoid killing off 50k worth of employment in the ecosystem. At the moment you cant it will involve network cut of at least 5-10 years if it were to be passed to a new airline. That's why there were thoughts on merging AAGB and MAG as it would minimise this issue.
Meanwhile Thai, Philippines and Garuda will be receiving aid from their respective govs.
Merger of AAGB and MAG will have a crash of corporate culture. unemployed MAG staffs could seek employment elsewhere. besides many are already on unpaid leave.
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11 minutes ago, flee said:Khazanah is still not letting go the idea...
What alternative available to MAG? For certain, none of airlines or foreign sovereign wealth fund is interested.
Khazanah should take the opportunity to close this zombie company else would just draining the resources. After the economy is recovered, could used money saved to incubate a new airlines.
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BANGKOK -- Thai Airways International, a listed state-owned enterprise, is dangerously close to becoming the world's first national flag carrier to go bust amid the coronavirus pandemic, with only days left to maneuver out of its latest financial straits.
Down to its last 10 billion baht ($307 million), according to local reports, which is enough to pay its employees for one month, the airline is in talks with the Thai government regarding a bailout.
To tide itself over during the emergency, the carrier has requested that the government approve a 70 billion-baht bridge loan, with the Finance Ministry as a guarantor, ministry sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.
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58 minutes ago, flee said:Khazanah quashes Golden Skies' US$2.5bil Malaysia Airlines takeover bid
“Plus their (Golden Skies') original proposal relied 100 per cent on debt funding from third parties. They do not have any equity of their own,” Shahril told the New Straits Times (NST) today.
It seems this type of financing structure is typical and popular in this country.
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2 hours ago, flee said:Malaysian firm bids US$2.5 bil for national carrier Malaysia Airlines, funded by European bank
KUALA LUMPUR, April 4 (Reuters) - A Malaysian company has proposed a fresh capital injection and to assume the debts of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), in a formal takeover bid of the ailing national carrier, according to a report by The Edge Malaysia.
The Malaysian government has been seeking a strategic partner for its national airline, which has struggled to recover from two tragedies in 2014 - the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 and the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine.
Golden Skies Ventures Sdn Bhd (GSV), a firm set up earlier this year by ex-MAS employees and private individuals, has offered a capital injection of 11 billion ringgit ($2.53 billion) and to assume the airline’s full outstanding Islamic bonds or sukuk, its chief executive Shahril Lamin was quoted as saying by The Edge.
See:
1 hour ago, JuliusWong said:Not much news on this GSV...but found this:
https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/new-firm-proposes-plan-save-malaysia-airlines-hopes-meet-pm
"They include corporate lawyer Shahril Lamin; Ravindran Devagunam, former Performance Management and Delivery Unit’s anti-corruption director; economist Dr Puvaneswaran Sanjivee; S Suppiah, former MAS executive vice-president of group finance; Sitham Nadarajah, former MAS vice-president of engineering; and Shulhameed Marican, former general manager of flight operations (services and infrastructure)."
The aviation industry has changed tremendously since their days, hope they know what they are doing. Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, former chief executive officer (CEO) who were supposed to be their adviser has passed on too.
And Shahril Lamin who is a corporate lawyer also uploaded their proposed new livery for Malaysia Airlines. Omg, that's a copy of Singapore Airlines!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahril-lamin-325a4941/?originalSubdomain=myDoubt any well managed banks would fund loss making airlines acquisition at this time.
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2 hours ago, JuliusWong said:Changi Airport T2 operations to be suspended for 18 months amid coronavirus outbreak
> Terminal 2 will be closed for 18 months. All F& B and retail outlets will be closed too. The closure will also speed up T2 refurbishment by up to a year.
> All remaining airlines operation will be consolidated at remaining terminals: T1 & T4.
> Singapore Airlines only- operation all at T3.
Smart move to take advantage for the crisis. If in other country, T2 refurbishment is likely defer.
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1 hour ago, Chris Tan said:KUL isn't LHR. Airlines aren't tripping over one another to serve KUL, and no incentive is great enough to change their minds. You want to connect a second-rate market like Malaysia to the world? You're going to need a national carrier.
KUL is already pretty well connected to the world via BKK, SIN, HKG, DXB, DOH, AUH, LHR, NRT, ICN, CAN and AMS.
Incentive to airlines (e.g LH, QF, NZ, AF, etc) need not insist non-stop to/from EU or AUS, extension from SIN or BKK is affordable and feasible. This 3 years incentive is to incubate demand for foreign airlines. Hopefully, after incentive, they could continue via SIN/BKK or non-stop to their hub.
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20 minutes ago, jahur said:I can predict what a few of them will say. Pls back up a large xray storage compartment in lahad datu, and long pasia etc. Build a specialist hospital in pensiangan. Pay extorbitant fees to doctors to stay in the interior to give excellent medical care no need for helicopter medevec. Dont bother about the orang utans and pygmy elephants and the flaura fauna around borneo they're expendable, urbanisation is more important look at how fine peninsula is doing with all the dead tapirs and tigers killed due to loss of habitat and migration. See how relax we are with the sumatran rhino being extinct.🤣
3 hours ago, Silverfly07 said:" Inter city road in Sabah & Sarawak has been neglected on purpose "... that part might be controversial, really. Gov can simply say, why do we need to build huge highways when the population in east malaysia is rather small and scattered. Just look at KK, SDK, BTU and even KCH so many white elephants... buildings, malls even houses.
I mean this is where regional turboprops & regional jets come into play. Looking at New Zealand, and most european countries, even USA thats what people normally do. Don't see them operating A320s and B737s for BKI-SDK/BKI-TWU sectors. Sure they still do, but at a very scarce frequency. Most of their frequency throughout the day will be operated by "regionals". American eagle, colgan air, air NZ ATR, Qantas Link Dash-8s etc etc... btw almost all of them are subsidised. If not subsidised... regionals will become a " FAX " ? Yes... that old Fly Asian Xpress.
Thats what Maswings used to do, give east malaysians the frequency. BKI-SDK x5 flights a day vs Redcap only x3 flights a day. Worst, after redcap took over there is no BKI-SDK-BKI flights in the late evenings nowadays, causing lots of trouble to the locals and business community. Right? People miss maswing right? Any sandakan and tawau people here wants to respond
thats why they need the ATRs. Coz late evenings you might only have 20 pax... but that 20pax need to fly, and they matter.
On MH really, medivac is not the only the thing they do. They also carry human remains ( there is a special rack for it ), they also carry hospital X-ray materials (there is also a special place and rack for it, to keep distance and shelter it from pax and baggages), and industrial equipment that AFAIK only MH and the cargo players can handle. All these things, they fly between east and west malaysia, yes almost on a daily basis. Not only within malaysia but also to all the international routes.
AirAsia is fine, they are doing a great job flying the average malaysian salaryman from point A to point B with a few pos cargo. Thats great. But are they willing to install and invest on special equipment, collapsable seats, and " dedicated cargo area " that WILL require them to sacrifice baggage compartment on all their pax aircrafts? Are they also willing to invest on staff training and certification for all the things mentioned. I doubt so, and i also dont think their business model allows it.
At the end of the day, AirAsia & Malindo is great, they really are good. But, the 20pax matters & the " national airline " still matters.
16 hours ago, jahur said:A lot of specialist doctors are in the west are not keen on relocating to east Malaysia. Its the same for Indonesian patients from Kalimantan sulawesi flying to Jakarta to sort any special illnesses all on Garuda and how people from Chiang Rai flew all the way to Bangkok as well on Thai.
You're aware that pc12 cant carry max stretcher? For mab they had to block 2-3 rows of seats which is why airasia bailed out. So far only private jets with wide enough cabins like the challenger and citation are capable of it. But chartering them can cost a fortune is the patient or insurance gonna fork out rm22k for an hour ride on a citation?
Look at how mi and ka did. They dumped bki and kch cause it was not feasible even using scoot is struggling for them. If they were to add the flights as well will they honor the frequency requirement. Doing just hkg-bki-sdk thrice a week doesn't cut it. Maswings was berated for poor frequency as well.
To call for improved highways look at what Pakatan did to Panborneo project. But even if that highway were to be completed no average person is going to drive from kuching all the way to kk.
Medevac, special cargo are mostly intra state, Maswings should be sufficient to cater, MAS 738 is a luxury.
Mentioned previously, Maswings could operate a mix fleet with smaller 30-50 pax aircraft to cater for low load. Subsidizing regional like maswings is many times cheaper than MAS.
There is always 101 reasons not to change but there are alternative solution. MAS business model remain largely unchanged since 1990's, is proven financially not feasible and unsustainable. If we don't change or adapt, resources is wasted and not better utilized.
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2 hours ago, Kenny Sing said:usually people didn't see the importance of air flight service in East Malaysia due to the lack of knowledge about how remote some area is. I don't mean to be mean but some people in peninsular just didn't know how difficult to move around fast in East malaysia especially when there's emergency happens. Oh by the way, i live in peninsular as well. But i do know a bit (though not much) about east malaysia.
i remember how D7 is born by obtaining the AOC with operating the RAS and end up giving up after a year operating it (despite with the subsidy from govt), leaving a bunch of fokkers in bad condition back to MASWing. So, something that is not really private sector able to cope with like example the RAS in borneo. Because it is basically a public service, and burning money to do so. it will never profitable in any measure (in totality).
Anyway, cheers everyone. Stay safe in this period.
6 hours ago, jahur said:For us in east Malaysia they're essential. In a week so many stretcher pax flying to the west Malaysia and AK was not keen on getting certified for that since 2008.
Would foreign airline operate BKI-SDK 3x daily? or BKI-KCH with 4x daily? I seriously doubt that can happen unless gov fork out money to buy planes for them.
It will be fine to close down MAB provided no suspension in any routes immediately. Best solution is to sell it of to competent companies and let them immediately resume all routes. But will there be one interested to buy now with Covid now in place?
Believe it is more cost effective and beneficial for gomen to relocate resources spent on MH to upgrade and maintain hospital facilities in KCH and BKI, and supplement with contract or chartered PC-12 or King Air air ambulance .
Not that foreign airlines won't serve BKI-SDK or BKI-KCH, it is just not permitted. Believe MI, TR, KA would be happy to ply SIN-BKI-SDK, SIN-KCH-BKI, HKG-BKI-KCH, HKG-BKI-SDK. If MI or KA is allowed to set up a regional hub at BKI and KCH, could base or contract a few regional jet to feed BKI-HKG, BKI-SIN, KCH-SIN like LH/EN in Italy.
Inter city road in Sabah and Sarawak has been neglected on purpose for many years. by keeping the people poor and rely on gomen handout, those in power could demand their votes.
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21 hours ago, jahur said:The problem medevec is never financially feasible u dimwitt. No matter how many times we try to tell you. You just dont listen. You just yapp nonstop like a stupid puppy. Just shutup okay?
16 hours ago, jahur said:And then they will jack up the price like indonesia. 🤣 When everything closes shop. Do you think foreign airlines both flag carriers and lcc even bother to set up flights here and maintain the same domestic frequency that we have? Especially post covid impact? Think logically for once. Or you're the type to stay at home and hope rich businessmen fork out their own to charter their own private jet domestically to settle business.
15 hours ago, jahur said:Sound simple. Doesnt work. Wheres fly mojo, wheres sabah sarawak own airline. The main problem is money. To start up a new airline where you're going to find 25bil ringgit(just to maintain 2 dozen narrowbody) that is estimate to maintain the frequency of flights at a reduced rate. So everyones tickets gets cancelled aye. Its the same everywhere. Its a focal point that airlines is still a very subsidised industry and there's no level playing field globally. Unless one can treat flying as non necessity, expect world govs to continue helping out the airlines and the hotel industry.
How many medevec flights needed each year? How much would it cost if is to charter or contract air ambulance? Would RM80m in 2019 be enough?
MAHB is already offer incentive to attract airlines to serve KUL. To encourage competition and suppressed airfare, gomen could spend more to attract more foreign airlines to serve KUL. Without MH, ticket price to US and EU is not more expensive than previously.
The curtailed of MH network has proved, MH is non essential, financially not feasible and the country could relocate resources to better use.
New airlines doesn't start with 2 dozen narrowbody, most grow from a fleet of two. RM800m gomen spent on MH each year could start and sustain a decent size fleet. A major issue in this country is to find competent management. One solution is gomen to offer 51/49% JV with foreign airlines.
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16 hours ago, Craig said:I didn't know AK interline with other carriers or OD flies nonstop to AU (except PER)/NZ/JP/KR. FFS, they don't even fly to Shanghai, Beijing with a miserable daily to HKG. Sure they have a lot of flights to the Indian subcontinent, but don't forget that OD is partially owned by an Indonesian company.
You want foreign airlines to resume flying to KUL? You need MH. Who else is going to transfer pax from KUL to other cities in Malaysia and beyond? OD can't fulfill that role. AK obviously can't.
And who is going to fly cargo between East and West Malaysia (and also regionally)? Why do you think MH is flying a daily A333 to HKG now even though both countries has sealed off borders to non-residents?
Could never think of a better time to start an airline tbh
I'd like you to show me OD's profit too
If financially feasible, other will step in. MH is a failure and will continue to drain valuable resources.
14 hours ago, jahur said:They did that. No one came forward. They even port it towards GA operators like Sabah Air and Hornbil. Problem? We dont have big aircrafts with proper range and no one wants to cash in for asset procurement and training. Airasia knew the problem and chose not to dig itself in deep red for it. AirAsia will only do it if its commercially viable.
During my days in Sabah Air state cant even do a proper Medevec contract with us and the weather around here(Boarded thrice and had 2 rtb because of the weather) makes u think twice about going deep into the rural area. Is the same for Nepal helicopter operators in Himalaya using very underpowered AS350 which is very unsuitable for rescue operations at like 15000feet above. There are more powerful helicopters better equipped but nobody wants to invest in them in lukla.
OD was built just to disrupt Ak to Lion to operate without haste in Indonesia with an additional market tap into europe using widebody(Failed thanks to better market opportunity in Thailand). In the early days Lion approached MAB to to open a side venture but it failed Lion was not a proper FSC and even Malindo today. Lion ceo then met with few msian gov official some say ol Najib gave the go ahead as well and came out Malindo with the idea of more competition equal better options for consumers while bleeding Lions cash balance just to keep Airasia pressured in Indonesia from overexpanding on all fronts.
Taxpayers have been subsidizing MAB for RM800m p.a for last few years. Money saved for certain more than enough to contract Medevec.
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3 hours ago, JuliusWong said:The government will not let MH wound up because it is the only local airlines that is certified to carry stretcher and host of other special missions which Malindo and AirAsia are not certified or could not be bothered to attain such certifications. And no, I think many of us won't want AK to dominate the local and international routes. AirAsia will need to get their house in order first prior to dabbling with MH. Malindo maybe register their first profit??
How often stretcher and special missions are needed? If gomen want, could make this a condition for AOC renewal. OD is a private enterprise, couldn't sustain without operation profit. It is likely, OD is paying high lease to parents company. To encourage competition, gomen could encourage and approve another aoc. If there is money to be made, for certain some will apply for AOC.
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MAB/MH is a zoombie company by any definition, gomen should take the opportunity to wind it up, so resources could be relocated for better use, not that OD or AK couldn't substitute MH's role.
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45 minutes ago, flee said:With financially sound airlines like SIA needing govt. aid, what about financial basket cases like MAG?
Should the Malaysian govt. save it or let it go? Several months ago, MAVCOM concluded that we have overcapacity in the Malaysian market. Surely, it would be foolish for the govt. to help all the airlines without some very strict and painful terms and conditions. There is no point helping them if all they do is burn the money competing against one another. How can the govt. solve this conundrum?
Interesting to see what MoT/MoF/MITI intends to recommend and what the cabinet decides...
As MAS has no chance to recover in next few years, believe the country could make do wth AK and OD. If these two airlines become duopoly and expensive, gomen could always issue new AOC.
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7 hours ago, flee said:Airasia Press Release: https://ir.airasia.com/news.html/id/767948
Not unexpected.
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4 hours ago, JuliusWong said:We are edging close to 1000 mark if the current daily 100 new cases per day stat continues. I am sure some of us have friends in healthcare, they are all saying the same......Malaysia healthcare is stretched beyond its limit at this point. We simply cannot afford another wave of outbreak. Switzerland has warned today, their healthcare system will collapse in 10 days of the current spreading rate persists. Our army is now rehearsing how to handle COVID patients for preparation, just in case our healthcare really melt down. God bless us all.
It is a matter of when not if local hospitals will run out of ventilator for critical patients. Current 2 weeks soft lock down won't eradicate covid 19 from the country; believe lock down could be extended or reimposed later.
without gomen assistance, many airlines won't survive. believe central banks like fed may purchase bonds issued by airlines or gomen could compensate airlines for flights cancellation during lock down.
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15 hours ago, jahur said:I was in shang ri la and jw marriott it aint luxury no more with the silly reduction in room quality. Its like whats happening to aircraft seats becoming thinner.
Consumers are sometimes very oblivious to whats going on behind the scenes or too caught up with the sjw social media fad. Android devices and iphones now costing RM4K but with only OS support for 2 years and yet masses would queue up to buy it. Benz and Bms that would break down on the highway cause of some electrical faults that their authorised technician could not solve heck even Jeremy Clarkson has complained about cars today. This fad has already creeped into hondas and toyotas.
Now even your average planes are designed poorly and is too digitalised. A350 no coffeezone in the flight deck because of oversized conputerised fms that is too digital, did they even think of making the entire central quadrant waterproof and now the A350 panels are touchscreen pretty sure those panel will breakdown more than the conventional ones.
Now with this little covid bug scare hopefully all of these consumer behavior nonsense would be trimmed down.
For international chain hotel, they have specifications for everything e.g towels, bed sheet, mattress, etc. As I am not JW or Shangri-la regular, can't comment.
Due to competition from Tesla, Chinese, etc many innovation were pushed into production before thorough testing is completed. Hence, many problems occurred.
7 hours ago, Mohd Suhaimi Fariz said:Professionals are driven by greed.
Capitalism is driven by greed.
3 hours ago, JuliusWong said:Looking at MH Board of Directors line up, they are very experienced and capable staff. However, one would wonder why they are unable to deliver the KPI set by Khazanah Nasional.
https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/about-us/leadership/board-of-directors.html
Actually what is wrong with Malaysia Airlines Group? AirAsia is one of the factors, but not the main factor tbh.
Many GLC board members hardly speak or relevant, will support whatever the chairman proposed.
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6 hours ago, jahur said:This is not restricted to msia itself. Look at middle east plying to many spanking a380 with dirt rate fares on j that QF and SQ shrunk on the kangaroo routes. Nobody checks on that cause yea fares are cheaper. While rich countries get to play around with their airlines cause hey free market open skies no signs of regulation anywhere.
LCC launching so many frequencies aggressively then cop out when loads arent good. Tickets are not flexible anymore giving you credit transfers only theres no hotline instead your chating with an ai bot or a staff who will just issue u nonstop of different case numbers to prolong your case until you forget to push them. Cant go to fsc cause they're also pressured by market share to go the lcc route for volume. No control what so ever
Cars as well. Brand new car with so called lower fuel emission that just breaks down after 2 years of usage due to ecs and transmission issue.
Hotels going green now. Using non lasting upholstery materials in rooms for the narrative that it helps the environment. Then dismantling the room for refurbishing the room way quickly isn't that more deadly to the environment.
Efficiency and quantity prioritized over quality seems to be motto nowadays. Cant help also that the younger generation are also dumb in their travelling methods and purchasing behaviour.
Like many business, some airlines accept lower profit margin/price, some insist higher profit margin/price; It is up to consumers to decide. I trust none of us wanted to pay KUL-BKI more than KUL-BKK before LCC existence.
From day one, LCC ticket is known to be restricted and expensive to change. I experienced a FSC charge more than return flights ticket for a sector date change.
In free market, one could ditch poor quality car and don't have to put up with almost always faulty automatic window.
Some hotels and most airbnb use cheap materials in the name of environment. But established hotels tend to choose higher quality and more long lasting products. However, there is a trend to reduce and remove single use plastic in hotel trade.
Many consumers forgo quality for cheaper price. Hence, cheaper products volume is higher than better quality and higher price products.
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2 hours ago, jahur said:That is why this industry need more regulation. The impact of covid-19 will effect airlines until 2021 is anyone gonna help with that i think no. Governments are too scared to adjust demands vying for any entrepreneur folks to take things their own way for a competitive market. Businesses are closing down, people lose jobs, folks arent getting refunded appropriately.
If professionals couldn't get it right, could gomen servants fare better? for years, mab and glc board of directors were filled with gomen servants.
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On 3/9/2020 at 5:37 PM, flee said:Malaysia Airlines' parent cuts 10 pct salary of senior management team
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines Bhd parent Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) will cut 10 per cent of its senior management salary as well as reduce their allowances, effective from this month.
Group chief executive officer Captain Izham Ismail said the cost-cutting was to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Full report: https://www.nst.com.my/business/2020/03/573123/malaysia-airlines-parent-cuts-10-pct-salary-senior-management-team
1 hour ago, flee said:Malaysia Airlines staff told to take unpaid leave as Covid-19 outbreak strains financials
KUALA LUMPUR (March 12): Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS) is the latest airline to ask its 13,000 employees to take voluntary unpaid leave as the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) takes a heavy toll on airlines' bottom line.
According to documents seen by theedgemarkets.com, the national carrier is offering all employees the option of taking three months no-pay leave or five days no-pay leave per month for at least three months, starting April. The voluntary unpaid leave programme is extended to employees employed by subsidiaries of Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) such as MAB Kargo, MAB Engineering, Firefly and MASwings.
More: https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/malaysia-airlines-asks-staff-take-three-months-unpaid-leave
3 months no-pay leave or 5 days of no pay leave per month is more than 10% pay cut.
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55 minutes ago, Kenny Sing said:if the company having good earnings and healthy balance sheet, it wasn't an issue paying high amount of allowance to senior management, when it is not, the senior management must lead by example before chopping the lower tier for cost cutting measures. too bad, MAS was chopping the lower tier as oppose to trimming the higher end ones.
Low hanging fruit is easiest to pick. EY pax is served RM4.50 meal box is by no accident.
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Desperate times call for desperate measures. Better to take short term pain for long term survival.
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52 minutes ago, flee said:This report has a little bit more detail than what the press releases put out:
To use A321 to match demand is long overdue and may be too late.
If XJ couldn't break even in tourists popular Thailand, doubt the long range LCC/D7/XJ business model is sustainable.
Airlines business is like hospitality businesses, high profile, glamorous to look at, many wanted to join but few are profitable.
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9 hours ago, flee said:That was the line in the Q4 2019 report that got alarm bells ringing for me. They are under a severe cash flow crisis and that is why I am doubtful that they will be around to honour their RM499 "unlimited" pass commitments. With Covid-19, Airbus corruption investigation and a government coup in progress, this is the perfect storm that will cause D7 to crash. Hopefully, management can come up with something - if not, staff will suffer the most!
Believe D7 need to cut their capacity drastically soon else may not survive. Unlike regional LCC that could benefit from short turn around time, etc; except squeezed in more seats (e.g 9/per row), long range LCC has little cost benefit over legacy carrier. Few regular/business travellers willing to take ungodly hour departure/arrival, uncomfortable seat, lack of entertainment, etc; hence, outside peak seasonal period, A333 load is below break even.
MAS Privatisation
in General Aviation
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One business model Khazanah could adopt to incubate MH replacement. Khazanah could sublease aircraft to this new airlines and subsidize RM100m, RM150m, RM250m, RM200m and RM100m in aircraft lease from year 1 to 5. Investors to responsible for opex and the rest.
With this model, only competent and resourceful investors will undertake, and airlines could expand fairly rapidly with minimum capex. And Khazanah exposure is limited.