Izanee

Craig - absolutely right! Tourism Malaysia has 99 problems. Malaysian tourism promotion took a back seat during the najib era … especially in Europe and USA. Money was being lost in the billions due to corruption and to stem the tide, the first things to go were the offices of tourism Malaysia. They were resting on their laurels for far too long, hoping that china will come through for us! The lack of effort in Europe, USA, Australia was a huge mistake. even at our peak, Chinese tourists to Malaysia numbered 3 million, while Thailand was getting 10 million!! This is in addition to 1.5 million from Russia, 1 million ish from UK, Germany etc etc! we were way ahead of Thailand in the 80s and 90s, and Thailand has overtaken us by far. The film ‘The beach’ in 2000s really impressed people world wide (IMHO) who flocked to Thailand for the beaches, pleasure, sun, food… meanwhile, in Malaysia, western studios just avoided filming due to the strict regulation and red tape! We missed a trick here. so many missed chances and missed opportunities. Our country could have been so much more. Shame

Yeah, I agree MH has been heavily cost cutting but it had been forced to buy meals from Brahims at overinflated rates… so I am not surprised that they have tried to push the costs down by downgrading the meal quality.

Hopefully not ‘influenzas’ but influencers? Hahah

I think this is a separate issue that you are talking about. FinnairA330 are operating QF flights to SIN and BKK from Australia. SAS are putting 5 aircraft in storage… opportunity for MAS really!

Makes sense that a lot of the ‘Singapore girls’ are Malaysian! As you say, most of the Singaporeans would have found it beneath them to serve others!

I agree that there is room for expansion in the current airport. The whole reason for moving it is to allow cronies to get a share of the pie…unfortunately this is what motivates people in Malaysia

Cheeky little route launch by Air China! That’s good, I was thinking KUL was being left out of Air china’s expansion plans…

I know KLIA was built 25 years ago, that’s ok. My point is that even Changi saw what KUL had an improved on it further. Why can’t it be the other way?

None of the MAHB management have been to Changi ke? Can they not learn from the world’s best airport 50 mins flight away?? Why so difficult? they took our ‘forest in the airport’ concept and made it a few levels better - look at Jewel! as uncle Roger say… ‘haiyaaaaa!’

Maybe Pak Brahim won’t serve food but will handle the PR? Hahaha

Nice one, looking forward to an Australian link for Turkish from KL!! wishful thinking maybe. if QF doesn’t want to fly, TK can join in! also looking forward to getting Air Astana back!

A lot of this is due to poor marketing and lack of direct flights to Europe. when Jibby was in power, they had wasted so much money that they had to shut down the tourist offices throughout Europe and the US. mH also made a stupid deal with EK during Mueller’s reign when he stopped all the 777 routes to Europe and channelled passengers onto EK flights. Then he left MH to go to EK. Malaysia had a head start for tourism but botched that one up badly. it’s a shame as we have amazing nature, beautiful beaches, diverse culture and modern cities. you don’t see the promotion they used to have in Europe and elsewhere. Now it’s even easier with social media and influencers… but we’ve even let that one slip.

Unfortunately it seems that MAS is behind the curve in this ‘rebound tourism’. We have literally no feed from Europe apart from LHR - concentrating only on china is a foolish venture. The money is in Europe/Middle East- people want to travel and are willing to pay the high prices. even TG is making money! Poor MH is now suffering from its previous mismanagement… the boy who cried wolf comes to mind! Now no one is willing to get their fingers burned

From aeroroutes… Amsterdam – Kuala Lumpur – Jakarta eff 30OCT23 5 weekly 787-9 (Kuala Lumpur service no longer extends to Manila, replaced by Jakarta. Jakarta operating via Kuala Lumpur instead of Singapore) KUL downgraded to 787-9 and to 5 weekly (compared to pre COVID). Hope they continue to increase services and the traffic to KUL. It seems a shame to throw away years of service and codeshare with MH. KUL was once a 10 weekly KLM destination (3 weekly eventually given to AF who then stopped flying after 1.5 years or so). this is showing that the demand to KUL (and onwards) has not really recovered. I’m surprised that the new government is not pushing the tourism boat out. Again, they are concentrating only on china and not elsewhere. This is very shortsighted. They have not capitalised on the rebound tourism following 2-3 years of the pandemic. very very strange considering that tourism is the 3rd highest contributor to GDP.

😅😅😅

Yeah agreed, it’s cost cutting in the guise of saving the environment

I flew back to KUL on MH’s newly configured 737-800. Seats are just about ok for an hour’s flight. The IFE was using my phone, and the kids were happy with the movies. The stream quality was very good. the pilot did a ‘go-around’ due to the horrible weather (? Wind shear) - resulting in him flying through massive storm clouds and the ensuing turbulence- passengers were screaming etc etc. I started thinking about Netflix Conspiracy theories the way the plane was bouncing up and down, left and right. and I thought that he would divert… but then he tried the second time and thankfully we landed ok. my 3 year old daughter was excited and wanted us to ‘do it again’. I said no. there was no mention of any of it but they did a good job to get us down safely.

Just flew on the 738 to LGK, the old config. the seats were reasonably comfy. IFE of course is out of date. but from what people are saying, the new config is going to make it a worse experience. Does SQ do the same for their 738 max 8? it would seem stupid for MH to offer an LCC type service - unless they’ve really given up on competing with SQ

QF sponsored MH into OW - I thought it was strange when they never really bothered with KUL in the first place! I guess they were thinking of RedQ and all the other options of LCC via KUL. Then that fell through, and Malaysia has been shunned since! not even proper jetstar flies into KUL, only jetstar Asia.

Thanks Craig for the link!

Do you mean the 13.1% and 10.9% of the total cargo Flying to KUL? Who flies it then? Cargolux? MasKargo from AMS?

MH fleet plan seems to be controlled by government funding. Completely not following any logical rules. But because of this short sightedness, MH will lose out. Look at how long it will take to get a new 787 or A350. Even Vietnam airlines has new generation aircraft - flying non stop to the US! MH will always be reactive unless they get rid of government interference totally

It’s terrible. We could have been so much better. The degree of corruption is astounding.

Ah okay, my bad. Didn’t read it properly! Thanks for clarifying

I thought it was 2x A380 and 1x 77W? According to Jim Liu: Dubai – Kuala Lumpur eff 01JUN23 3rd daily service resumes with 777-300ER (A380 service also shifts from EK346/343 to EK346/347) eff 01AUG23 2nd daily A380 service resumes EK346 DXB0310 – 1425KUL 388 D EK342 DXB1025 – 2150KUL 388 D EK344 DXB2115 – 0840+1KUL 77W D EK343 KUL0240 – 0530DXB 388 D EK345 KUL1015 – 1310DXB 77W D EK347 KUL1920 – 2220DXB 388 D