Izanee

agree that the main problem is HIGH management overheads. too many idiots running the show - too many overpaid foreign consultants who have not helped to improve MH's situation in the least. as mentioned before - JJ ong was a LOCAL who managed to turn around the fortunes of MASKargo. why can emirates and qatar airways have european managers who have the vision and foresight to continually improve the airline. why can SIA have LOCAL people with vision and foresight? MH's bosses are too comfortable with their positions - draining more money out of the ailing airline while kicking out deserving people who do the legwork. Its not about LCC cost - MH said categorically it is not an LCC. Why are they fixated on competing with one instead of focussing of SQ and EK?

MH is really going downhill - rather than up its game and increase services to get more paying pax - they have downsized in terms of staff, aircraft, assets, inflight services in order to save a few bucks. while that may be the case during Mr. Jala's tenure - I think this profit they are making will not last long as its just a temporary fix to the problem. selling six jumbos will give you lots of money for sure. getting rid of many routes which they didn't even give a chance to work is another. Manchester has a HUGE catchment area - at least 1 million in greater MAN and 1.2 million in Leeds/Bradford, 1 million in East Yorkshire. Also the Northwest and Northeast england!!!! HUGE. Emirates can make it with multiple flights to London, birmingham, manchester, glasgow AND EVEN newcastle. come on Idris. get your act together. THEY CAN'T EVEN MAKE LONDON WORK! THEIR VERY OWN FLAGSHIP ROUTE - MH 001 for god's sake. All other airlines are struggling to get more services to LHR. We have been gifted 100 000 pax/year from BA - still MH is struggling with their cheap shitty plastic trays. The meal service has definitely gone downhill over the last few years - i used to be extremely proud of MH's meals as compared to BA, SQ, QF, and EK during my trips to and fro UK the past ten years. I was shocked with the cheap trays and the lack of tasty deserts on the flights I took in June. THAT is LONG HAUL. Imagine snack boxes for regional routes. Forget 5 star with LCC cost. that is the most irritating statement ever made. That made me go off Idris Jala. Look at SIA's inflight services. Look at their plans for the A380. in fact - look at their CURRENT 77W services!!!! my god. we can either up our game or start comparing our services to GARUDA, PHillipine airlines (which is buying more 773s) and Biman bangladesh. (no offence to fans of those airlines but you have to agree their services are s#1t). JJ Ong - who managed to turn around MASKargo is also gone now. Since he has gone - they have less aircraft and they have cut back on lots of freighter routes - for e.g. Manchester, Basle, Milan Malpensa. Dubai is getting cut off as well. How are they going to increase freight through KUL - we have been stuck at 650 - 670 000 tonnes/annum. singapore is handling 1.9 million tonnes now. if they can't make dubai (another freighter hub) work - how will they make Tashkent work???? so they sacrifice the connections from major African/middle eastern and European markets for a few goats and chickens from Baku, Dushanbe or Bishkek??? what the hell are they thinking??? I have been following malaysia's aviation scene for many many years now - just when i think it will get better- somed10t shows up with ludicrous ideas. AK will surely profit now - MAN, ZRH, maybe FRA, IST, DME, CAI, NGO, FUK.......god knows where else. This systematic purge of MH's routes stinks of something. I hope Radzi is NOT right - but deep down, i know what he's saying is true. Happy fasting! just my tuppence worth...

radzi - that is indeed a scary thought. it is so shocking that I can actually believe it. I've seen how the government suddenly became very receptive towards TF's half assed ideas - i'm not surprised really if that is the case. Look at the RAS scandal. I don't want MH to lose out to AK at all. TF is lying when he talked about operating niche markets that MH won't fly to. So far he's keen on australia, china, UK and i think i read somewhere Hong Kong, south korea and japan. hmmm... it doesn't seem so strange now. you've got me thinking radzi!

holy moly...didn't ever think ZRH was not profitable. that's very sad indeed as i still remember the excitement over their inaugural flight in 1989! what a shame. so MH is adding one or two frequencies here and there while cutting back others AND stopping flights elsewhere. NGO is out too....not good news for KUL's connectivity. looks like all KUL will become is a LCC hub.

pieter..thanks for starting this thread. any news on MH and skyteam? what about the KLM guy who was supposed to be the new head of skyteam...

she looks like she's 'enhanced' in more ways than one!

QR is full of crap to be honest. They made such a big deal about services to KUL but left it with A300-600 till now. SIN was started later than KUL - but was immediately upgraded in terms of capacity and frequency. Of course, we all know that SIN is a higher yield destination than KUL. But the rest of ASEAN had 332 services while KUL languished with the A300. its about time KUL was upgraded to be honest.

MEA already flew to KUL in the late nineties - BEY-KUL-SYD with 747s. they used to fly once weekly codesharing with MH's twice weekly BEY-KUL services. They pulled out after some time... codesharing on MH's services instead.

salams yohan... don't worry mate....its always good to get different people's ideas and suggestions. I needed lots of help from various people in drafting my c.v. and applying for jobs - and I still need more ideas now. You learn something new everyday. Go on, be brave and aim high! good luck to you insyaAllah.

i hope its your letter as mentioned by sri ramani - if its not, plagiarism is a serious offence. Just hope that no one else wrote the same letter to them!

well pieter...i hope that this guy will make a difference. MH is just wasting its time - some of the major airlines that didn't join an alliance include EK, EY and VS. MH does not have the money to expand like EK/EY/QR- therefore it needs all the help it can get to further increase loads and yields as well as to make KUL a major hub. We are now fourth in SEA (Jakarta overtook us past 2 years with 30 million pax/annum). we are still far behind SIN (35 million) and BKK (42 million) despite what our dear friend TF is saying about his beloved AK making KUL a LCC hub. SIN and BKK will also have huge increases in LCC traffic considering they already ARE air hubs of choice in this region.

hahaha....i get it now!

poorly written article with nothing to substantiate it. the english is atrocious...

Hi guys....i was reading on business times online a few days back that the BOM-KUL flights on MS were 90% full. they said that they planned to operate DEL-KUL and AMD-KUL flights as well. Any further news or comments on that?

google 'emerald travel' and give them a ring. otherwise try rexair.co.uk. other websites include lastminute.com, opodo.co.uk, cheapflights.co.uk, expedia.co.uk

if its a vindaloo bc tam, there will be third explosion - this will not be as pleasant as the first two. its called the FAS (Fiery a*s syndrome)!

great stuff...i will keep a look out for that month's issue! keep up the good work.

Congrats to Levent for having his article published in Airliner World magazine! It was an interesting read about Firefly, MH's latest subsidiary. Nice photos of the F50s too! Well done mate...hope you'll send more on KLIA and MH. Its about time we get a decent review...the last one I read about MH was probably 10 years ago (not sure if its the same magazine).

For me: MH (F50, 732, 734, 735, AB3, D10, 772, 744) AK (733, 320) BA (744, 757, 767, 735, ATR-72) QF (744) SQ (310, 757, 743) JL (D10) BD (320, 321, ERJ) FR (732) SV (743, L15) EK (772, 773) MS (737, 772) IB (320) EI (320) KL (744, F-100)

the capital letters are for final destinations; while the lower case letters are for intermediate stops: e.g. BUENOS AIRES, Cape Town, Johannesburg

hi levent... i read airliner world and the airport magazine. why don't u do an article on KLIA or MH. its been a while since MH has appeared in a proper full length article. will be waiting for april 2nd...

isn't that the requirement of alliances that airlines need to be approved by IATA's new standards? could this mean that MH is close to joining an alliance?? hahaha....we hope..

don't forget guys - you can also travel from Europe to Malaysia: via MCT by GF; via JED by SV; via SAH/DXB by IY via CMB by UL via MAA/DEL/BOM by AI apparently a LCC from beijing called xiedu airlines is planning to start flights to KUL using 737NG (from airliner world magazine). and according to justplanes.com; AI is looking for a 767-300ER to start BOM-DEL-KUL and BOM-DEL-BKK flights. KUL is slowly but steadily expanding. Looking forward to AY and SU starting flights. We now need BA/AF back and another american carrier - perhaps NW may consider an A330 flight from NRT. Speaking of NRT - NH should reconsider and fly from NRT rather than KIX. well - KUL is one of the top 50 airports in the world out of thousands - airlines can't stop ignoring us for too long. my two cents worth..

you're right seth, that's just a load of crap as usual. i hate it when they think that all of us are naive enough to believe their crap statements. every single airline that flies to KUL say that it is their 'hub' in the region.... the only ones i know is KLM (and even they fly to SIN daily with 772); SV; BG (daily DC10 according to amadeus). QR flew to KUL early on but concentrated on BKK and SIN more - they had A330 flights from the beginning while KUL is still served with a crappy old A300-600.

its confirmed guys - loaded on amadeus.net (from January 2007): Etihad Airways EY 406 KLIA (KUL), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 15:00 Abu Dhabi International (AUH), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates 18:15 Non-stop 343 7h15min Daily except Saturday