Seng Lim

From what I could recall, EK & QR only recruit 'female' cabin crew in Malaysia.

Just check out the local newspaper will do (The Star Saturday Recruitment section) and check out the airline website in their recruitment section as well. SQ just close their application for flight steward about 2 months ago.

+ everyone on the first flight for sure very happy because got 'buy 1 get 1 free' due to the cancellations.

First flight with company boss onboard, good service is something expected. In the later stage -- not sure, hehe. Just hope the passangers understand you pay for what you get and you are not onboard CX.

Yes, you are right, they are not Malaysian or Singaporean and everyone know that they are Hong Kong people and most probably they speak in cantonese but I can't write cantonese (i can only write chinese), if I write cantonese or chinese only certain members can understand, what for?

Some interesting pictures to share (took from mingpaonews): Yeh, we are flying! Chubby uncle : "What's your explaination! Do you know you've ruined 300 passangers trips!" Chairman Lee : "Not my fault lar, it's Russian fault, me and my wife and my son also taking this flight you know" Mrs. Lee (from her heart) : "Shut up and stop harrassing my handsome hubby" Get out, quickly get out, Now everyone cannot fly. Go and claim your free return tickets + HKD500 or accomodations for foreigner. Brief history and development of Oasis in chinese.

From Oasis website: Oasis receives approval for overflying rights through Russian airspace Hong Kong, October 26, 2006 Despite all approvals being in place and paperwork in order on 25th October, our inaugural flight from Hong Kong to London Gatwick was delayed due to a last minute change by the Russian authorities. Subsequently, at 00:45h this morning we received a further approval for overflying rights through Russian airspace. Hence we intend to depart to London Gatwick at 13:00h Hong Kong time, today. Our foremost concern is the well-being of our passengers, and irrespective of the reasons behind the delay to our inaugural flight, we are very conscious of the disruption and disappointment it has caused. The Chairman of Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, the Rev. Dr. Raymond Lee is delighted to give all passengers on today’s flight a free round trip on Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, in addition to the compensation they have already received. Passengers are advised to contact our ground operations representatives on (852) 2216 1088 for the most up to date departure information.

You're welcome Lam. Honestly speaking it's very inauspicious for Oasis to cancel their first flight and suffered from so much losses on the compensations and negative publicity on the 1st day of their operations. I hope they will survive......

Here's the translation in english: According to HK Economic Development & Labour Dept, they have contacted HK embassy in Russia to speed up the approval for Oasis. He also added it is always the airline own responsibilities to get the flying rights. Oasis President Mr. Lee is very disappointed on what’s happened on today and reaffirmed that they only received the information about the rejection on the flying rights over Russia during boarding. The are looking into other alternative flying routes and very confident the plane will fly eventually. For all the affected passengers, they will get hotel accommodations, free air tickets and HKD500 compensations etc. They will contact the passengers asap on the confirmed departure date & time.

They look very embarrassing, especially the wife and the son just kept his head down, poor thing.

Bad start on their first day! From Yahoo news : http://asia.news.yahoo.com/061025/afp/061025102007eco.html World's first long-haul budget airline in Hong Kong gets off a bumpy ride Wednesday October 25, 6:20 PM HONG KONG (AFP) - Oasis Airlines, which promotes itself as the world's first long-haul budget airline, was getting off to a bumpy start on its inaugural cut-price flight from Hong Kong. One of Oasis' two leased Boeing 747 jumbos was due to be airborne Wednesday at 1:00pm (0500 GMT) but has been delayed by more than four hours due to a last-minute hold-up in approval to overfly Russian aerospace, the airline said. "We have learned that despite all paper being in order and having received all necessary approvals, the Russia authority, for unexplained reasons, have chosen to now hold up the overflight rights," it said in a statement. The carrier said it is in direct contact with the Russia authority to get it off the ground as soon as possible. Two other European-bound flights were also delayed by around an hour Wednesday, according to the Airport Authority. The Civil Aviation department said the traffic in Europe has been busy. A full complement of more than 300 passengers, including the airline's top management, was bound for London's Gatwick Airport. ADVERTISEMENT Economy passengers were paying just 1,000 Hong Kong dollars (128 US dollars) for the one-way journey, a special introductory offer that will last until December 14. Business travellers paid just 6,600 dollars. "Our vision is to give Hong Kong high-quality, low-fare and direct flight services," said Oasis chairman Raymond Lee at the launch. Industry analysts are watching Oasis closely as it competes against Asia's leading airline Cathay and Britain's established British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, which charge at least double the price on the same route. Oasis promises full-value service at budget prices -- serving two hot meals and complementary tea, coffee and water with soft drinks, snacks and alcohol available for purchase in the economy class. Both economy and business classes have personal seat-back TV with a choice of up to 16 video entertainment channels, offering films including last year's "Batman Begins" and "Ocean 12" from 2004. Passenger Maria Chau said she had never been to London before and only decided to go because of the Oasis offer. "I thought I'd book it because the price is so low," Chau said as she checked in her baggage. "I'm very excited." The carrier said it hopes the ticket price will remain 30-40 percent lower than other major airlines after its promotional period, while at least 10 percent of the economy class will still cost only 1,000 dollars. Lee said the airline is actively seeking to increase its fleet to five in its first year of operation, hoping to bring this up to 25 planes in five years. Lee believes it will take 12-18 months for the carrier to break even. Oasis boasts an average of 500 bookings daily since it began taking reservations in September and expects ticket sales to reach more than 55,000 in the first quarter and 190,000 in its first year. Oasis is flying four times a week to and from London and it will begin its daily service from November 25. It plans to increase its routes by two to three more, including Oakland in San Francisco which will begin service from the first quarter 2007. Lee said the airline has also obtained license to fly to Chicago, Milan, Berlin and Cologne/Bonn. It is filing applications to operate to Vancouver, Toronto, Zurich, Paris, New York and Los Angeles. Lee said the carrier is in talks to partner with other budget airlines for connections to the rest of Europe and North America. It has opened talks with UK-based easyJet and Ryanair, as well as Germanwings, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue. The airline has also established partnerships with Cargolux and Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (HACTL) to offer cargo services but passenger flights will remain its core service.

From http://www.askcaptainlim.com/asseatingissues.htm "Practically, there is no solid evidence to point to any specific area of the airplane that is safer than the other. Some believe that it is safer to sit near the wings. Conventional wisdom has sometimes influenced safety experts to conclude that sitting at the rear of the airplane provides a higher survival rate in the event of a crash. This is one of the reasons why the black boxes are always installed at the tail portion of the airplane. However, I would caution to say that the safest seat during an emergency evacuation is probably one near the aisle and emergency exits. Speed of evacuation is one of the reasons why FAA requires all airplanes to be capable of getting every passenger out within 90 seconds of a crash landing. . In real life, an emergency evacuation can be a very chaotic event with people trying to collect their precious baggage, further hampering the flow. Being nearest to the exits ensure the best guarantee of a safe evacuation. So I would like to be the first few to be out before the rush starts from the back!"

Great pics Kelvin!

I guess lepetitvagabond must be very handsome

The complete SQ6 report is available for download at: http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/ASCAAR-02-01.pdf All the information is available there. Refer to the lucky vs. unlucky seats in this disaster, here's the information I got from that report.

From what I remembered the Captain and FO both sacked by SQ while the SO able to keep his job.

I'm totally agreed with Izanee, excellent!

From what I remeber on one of those air disaster documentary, TCAS did come out with 'tut tut tut' type of alarm sound + the instruction in voice as well.

Info from Wikipedia: Great Wall Airlines Company Limited is a cargo airline based in Shanghai, People's Republic of China. Launched on 22 June 2006 [1], it was co-owned by China Great Wall Industry Corporation (51%), Singapore Airlines Cargo (25%), and Dahlia Investments (24%), a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings based in Singapore [2]. The airline launched its first flight from Shanghai to Amsterdam on 1 June 2006 with an initial frequency of six flights per week, becoming the first local-foreign partnership airline to take flight in China [3]. Flights to Singapore, Chennai and Mumbai are planned to be launched next [4]. Has suspended operations on Friday (18 Aug 2006). The United States filed sanctions among the airlines due to a suspicious activity for supplying Iran with nuclear supplies. This halted all cargo flights operated by Singapore Airlines Cargo to China The airline operated two Boeing 747-400 freighters, on lease from Singapore Airlines Cargo. The aircraft have since been returned to Singapore Airlines Cargo and are currently in a SIA Cargo/Great Wall hybrid livery

Real pictures is available now:

Because SIA is getting all those international connecting flights passangers + the competitve airfares and reputable service, it's not difficult to fill up their planes at all. For Penang people, to fly to overseas they'll need to go though either BKK or KUL or SIN, so at the end of the day every carrier is equal unlike KL passangers where MAS = direct flight and if you fly with SQ you'll need to transit in changi (some people don't like transit).

Update the A330 cabin with PTV in all class and refurbish the C cabin (just use the old B772 business class seat will do, no need lie flat since they're mainly used for regional flights anyway). Be more aggressive and have more frequent airfares promotions to fill up seats on those empty flights. Stop offering full meals on domestic flights to East Malaysia, just offer snack (like sandwich) will do.

Yes, technically there's no problems (Since CI also fly B738 to TPE). I'm actually referring to the low cost airline business model - short flights and fast turnaround times (allowing maximum utilization of planes) which is usually below 3.5 to 4 hours. However AK can consider those midnight red eye flights for longer route like TPE if they want to maximised the utilisation of the aircraft.

Yes I do agree TPE is a good choice. However flying time from KUL to TPE is about 4.5 hours which might be too long for AK. From BKI to TPE is 3H20M which is just nice.

I've been to Xiamen before, it's a small city and the airport is just right next to the Xiamen Port. Compared to Shenzhen, Shenzhen is definitely more appealing for most Malaysian as it's a shopping heaven and very close to HKG as well.