Izanee

Have a look at this: http://www.historyofpia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23590

BKK also has Thai wide bodies twice daily and a daily Thai smile A320 while CGK only has 3 daily Ga 738.

LTU was the first from Europe in the 90s... once weekly Dusseldorf- Langkawi. Then Finnair came after, which were charter flights..

Flee, it was 1993 that they bought the MiG29 and the F/A 18 hornet. I am 100% sure that they bought more MiG29 because they were much cheaper and the Russians were happy to sell them missiles etc etc. The USA would only allow them certain weapons systems (whereas Singapore could get the more advanced ones as they were much closer allies).. Now as you said, the MiG29 maintenance costs are much more - so overall false economy. They were bought during Dr Ms time

Typical Malaysian government false economy - buy more of the cheaper ones rather than the expensive ones (F/A18) which last longer. Theres a reason why they are more expensive. In the long run, you save more

I still feel they cut out the 777s too quickly and cut down their routes too aggressively. Now they have nothing to feed their asian services with. China has a million airlines that flies to secondary airports. No need to use MH. Their strategy was flawed from the outset. Very sad but may be time for them to wind down

Really?AMS can do it in 50 mins

Absolutely. MH was big on the kangaroo route at some stage and was the second largest foreign airline into Australia after SQ. even though MH was struggling, it was still a threat to EK. Following the twin disasters, it was so much easily to take advantage of MH and finish it off completely in Continental Europe. That deal with EK to codeshare is a huge mistake. mHs presence in Europe has been wiped out and they are in no fit state now to get back there - especially with no aircraft to do so comfortably non stop (well, they had but project HOPE scuppered any chance they had)

Exactly, now that theyve cut off Paris and Frankfurt and Stockholm and Johannesburg and many others, MH is struggling to find feed for its other profitable routes. I think most of this was a knee jerk reaction to getting rid of 744s and 772s quickly without having a replacement aircraft ready. 333 is a medium haul aircraft really so essentially MH reduced their long haul fleet from 15 777s and 15 744s to 6 380s and 6 350s. No replacement aircraft found. The cut backs seem evident when you look at the airline quAlity reviews for MH - if you choose to believe it.

Yeah, looks like there may be some business class demand too as this aircraft has a small business cabin.

BWN-KUL-BAH-ZRH with a 767?? Amazing!

OMG

I think MH made a mistake when they cut so many routes as they were non profitable. As people have said here before, if you are a major airline, you still need your feed from these routes to make others profitable. Now I am still suspicious that Chris Mueller made some very rash decisions about routes and then made MH forgo some of their previous codesharing partners by going to sleep with EK. And quite soon after that, Mueller went on to EK... effectively disabling a competitor on the Europe - Aust/NZ route. Now MH is stuck having lost that very important feed. MH decided to concentrate on North Asia to Aust/NZ instead which I still think is a mistake because of the emergence of multiple second tier Chinese airlines. Anyway, MH lost its place as a major connecting airline from Europe a long time ago. Once you lose your place, its going to be so difficult to get back with all the cut throat competition going on.

Maybe the HSR should have two extra stops - MTB and satellite terminal!

Well, an El Al 747 had been packed with 1122 people by the Israeli Air Force during an emergency evacuation of Jews from ethiopia. That was a record I think. Operation Solomon May 1991. 14000 jews evacuated over 36 hours with various aircraft stripped of all seats

I was surprised they let so many trained cabin staff go. As we can see now, it takes years of investment to get them trained. They have really shot themselves in the foot

I think that is the mistake MH made with other airlines. I think for a market like KUL, perhaps codesharing with the respective home airline on the main routes and onwards to other destinations would have helped? For example: Maybe KUL-CDG could have been 3 weekly AF and 4 weekly MH with connections onwards on both ends. Ditto with KUL-FRA between MH and LH. I know AF wasnt very Interested in MH and KUL for a long time. When they finally returned to KUL, their relationship with MH was already so bad (especially bad since MH has been very close to KLM and was toying with the idea of joining SkyTeam) that MH just decided to out-price them out of the market by putting a daily A380 service, dropping the yields considerably! Anyway, Im just a keyboard warrior MH and KUL lover, dont know much about the precise ins and outs of the difficulties MH faced over years on all fronts. Just my tuppence worth of opinion

Finally someone filling in the gap. I find it hard to believe that there is not a market between FRA-KUL considering that there were 8-12 flights/week btwn MH and LH for many years. I know a lot of the slack has been taken up by SQ and the ME3 for European connections..

sounds like a pre election shopping spree! But hey, Im no politician! Haha

Thanks Nastar for the inside info. I guess it all makes sense. MAS had billions ploughed into it over the years. If it hadnt got into the wrong hands or used for the wrong reasons, maybe we might have had a fighting chance ... but lets hope that the government keep their grubby paws off MAS for a change.

Thats exactly what they need to do, you are right. Thats why EK and SQ can sustain their ops. You need have a decent number of places to act as your feed to other more profitable destinations. You cant completely rely on Malaysia which is a low yield destination (as people keep harping on about it). MAS has completely cut off its European feed - acting as a link between North Asia and Australasia is just a nonsense way of doing things - especially when you have so many Chinese carriers offering flights from secondary cities in China to Oz/NZ. That idea was probably good if not for these Chinese carriers popping out of nowhere.

MH was the first airline in ASEAN to fly to all 6 continents! They flew to Buenos Aires and Mexico City waaay before any of the ME3 and definitely waaaay ahead of any regional rivals (ASEAN).. They've flown to Zagreb, Stockholm, Munich, Manchester, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Beirut, Vienna, Istanbul, Rome, Newark, LAX, Cairo, Brussels, Zurich over the years. Not all at the same time though...

Yeah, I also remember Finnair's charters to LGK and the weekly LTU flight Fromm dusseldorf!

'Langkawi Island Airport in Malaysia is to see long haul operations next winter. TUI airways is to operate bi-weekly flights on alternative Wednesday's from Birmingham and London Gatwick, while Manchester will operate on Thursdays. All flights use the B787 and tie into a cruise that starts in Langkawi and ends in Bangkok' This is from airliners.net forum...

I didnt have any of my relatives or friends on that flight but even I feel that we need some closure on this issue. I really hope they find the plane. Good luck