Izanee

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

For sure our marketing is bad. It got even worse when they started shutting down tourist offices in major European/US cities, then MH pulled out of US/EU completely; then the government (very shortsightedly! concentrated fully only on the Chinese tourists, and this was followed by our tourism agencies not jumping on the social media bandwagon! for something that is our 3rd largest income earner, I’m surprised the total apathy by the government. They needs to pull their finger out and get working on this soon or we will be even further behind! Post pandemic travel is increasing and we are still waaaay behind in attracting tourists who are going to elsewhere!

KLM always has had love for KUL. It is Air France that has been a problem, blocking MH from Sky team for a long time. In fact, I was surprised when AF used KL’s 3 extra frequencies to operate flights to KUL around 2013. It was a shame they couldn’t make it work, but I think part of it was that MH upgraded CDG to daily A380 which then trashed that market. Now both are not flying the route. They could have done a joint service or codeshare (3 weekly for AF, 4 weekly for MH) - with connections beyond KUL for AF, and beyond CDG for MH (which they did with AA to USA). ICN is used by KLM as a stopover for china flights due to the pandemic, I’m sure until china opens up fully.

As long as MAS is controlled by the government, we will have this same issue every time! it has be run like a proper business for it to prosper I’m afraid… so sad to see it die a slow death

Very interesting turn of events for KLM! At least KUL is back to daily, and has 3 routes!

Oh yeah, of course I remember that saga! In the end QF gave up on Malaysia and decided to keep investing in SIN. until we can move forward economically, get out of the middle income trap, and have a better exchange rate.. I suspect we won’t be able to get the premium traffic that is required for these foreign airlines to come here! it’s a bit if and a big ask!!

Craig, I think you hit the nail on the head. Instead of competing with the other European careers, MH could have gone into cooperation with them like they did with KL. I know AF was never keen for MH cooperation … and QF seems to be ignoring malaysia selectively! connections beyond KUL is paltry compared to what SQ is offering. We missed out by giving everything up in europe to EK (who took out a decent competitor on the kangaroo route). I hope KL continues to make KUL work. Disappointing to hear about the 3 weekly summer flights!! I think from October it’s back to daily KL 809/810.

Yeah, I had that problem. QR told me via email and via the app that my flight would be with MH. I hadn’t flown MH medium haul for a long time so was happy to fly with them. The 4 abreast in the middle configuration really suited my family of 4. QR A350 from EDI was 3-3-3 which made it a big problem for my 3 year old daughter who wanted to us to sit together!

From aeroroutes… Iraqi carrier FlyBaghdad in December 2022 intends to extend its network to Southeast Asia, where the airline plans to operate Baghdad – Delhi – Kuala Lumpur route. Subject to further adjustment, first flight is tentatively scheduled on 01DEC22, with 737-900ER operates 2 weekly flights. Reservation is not available on the airline’s website. IF191 BGW1855 – 0150+1DEL0250+1 – 1100+1KUL 739 14 IF192 KUL1200 – 1505DEL1605 – 1750BGW 739 25

I used to love watching the IL62s of CSA and Aeroflot fly in to Subang in the 80s. I used to live in SS14 so was directly under the flight path for runway 33. those IL62s were so loud!! Eventually Aeroflot changed them to A310s which continued onto Sydney. I don’t think we ever saw the IL-86s in KUL.. those went to SIN. JAT was better as they used a DC-10 on their run from Belgrade.

A321s fly on TATL routes all the time… 6-8 hours! Aer lingus does it a lot… and there are B737max 8/9s that fly the TATL routes too

Haha … KUL-MNL-HNL-YVR-EWR anyone??

From aeroroutes…. UZBEKISTAN AIRWAYS RESUMES SOUTHEAST ASIA SERVICE FROM NOV 2022 1 min NW22 Published at 1100GMT 04OCT22 Uzbekistan Airways in Northern winter 2022/23 season is resuming service to Southeast Asia, with flights to Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur scheduled, on board Airbus A321neo LR aircraft. Planned operational schedule as follows. Tashkent – Bangkok eff 03NOV22 2 weekly HY531 TAS2230 – 0640+1BKK 32Q 14 HY532 BKK0810 – 1310TAS 32Q 25 Tashkent – Kuala Lumpur eff 01NOV22 2 weekly HY553 TAS2300 – 0930+1KUL 32Q 5 HY553 TAS2355 – 1030+1KUL 32Q 2 HY554 KUL1100 – 1600TAS 32Q 6 HY554 KUL1200 – 1700TAS 32Q 3

I don’t think so… I think they will increase KL809/810 to daily from March 2023… NS timetable

What do you mean 70s? In the late 90s/early 2000s KLM and BA had large screens for IFE projection… if I paid slightly more I got MH’s 747 or 777 with seat back TV!

Completely agree with you. They are very shortsighted. The budget probably goes somewhere else!!

Ok That makes more sense. You can always change after a few years

That is so true. Malaysia has closed most of their tourist offices in Western Europe and USA because of cost cutting. the government and MAS did concentrate on china but then failed to consider the rise of secondary Chinese airlines. These fly from Various second tier cities which are lower yielding. MH should really focus on building a few core medium/long haul routes that will make money - and even if you replace aircraft 1:1, it should be fine as long as the aircraft has the range required. The current A330-300 can’t do non stop Europe flights without taking a payload hit. I suppose the A330neo could do non stop Europe/NZ flights, so even if we don’t get A350s, it gives me hope that further expansion can happen!!

they should think ahead and get something future proof, rather than an update of an older plane. hope they won’t be shortsighted. However, if they are going the airbus way, I will be happy if they get some A350s along with A330neos…

MH was stupid. They gave up their HND slots .. first they made it BKI-HND then gave it away to D7, if I remember correctly. Hopefully they will make use of their prized HND slots now

It’s a shame cos Malaysia was big on marketing many years back. But because of corruption and mismanagement, money was channeled for other reasons. to save money, the government closed down tourism Malaysia offices in many major cities across us and Europe. Very premature, and with complete lack of foresight. they decided to concentrate fully on China alone, but places like Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam carried on promotion in Europe as well as Asia. It’s this complete lack of foresight and inappropriate penny pinching that has made me despair! tourism is our third biggest money earner - they should be putting money there in order to maintain our lead in terms of arrivals etc etc. This is especially so since we’ve lost practically most direct air links from Europe and USA. they are the biggest spenders worldwide. oh well, what do I know?

Looks like it’s alternate day KL 801/2 and 809/10. just check their schedules online...

Wow, that is a shocker. What a shame for KUL. Until we can get our economy to the next level, and lift the ringgit up from the depths, we will remain as a low yield destination. Plus, none of the European carriers can face the huge capacity that the ME3 provides to KUL.

Agreed... what a shame that the ringgit is now worth less than the Thai baht and Philippines Peso ...

Love the tails!!