Will

Nowhere does it say KLIA. Melaka, yes. Taken from http://www.riau-airlines.com/route.htm. They used to have one but has since been discontinued. I was mistaken, it's actually based on speed rather than weight. Turboprops are slower than jets who make the bulk of KLIA's traffic, thus slowing down traffic for everyone. It's not particularly critical but could cause unnecessary delays in a busy airport, especially since KLIA's on single runway operation for the next few months.

There's always a readback for every clearance given. I wonder if they read back "descend four zero zero" or "descend two four zero zero"? I agree it's damn confusing. The ATC may have missed the incorrect readback. So many flights a day...always happens. Luckily nowadays we have "whoop whoop PULL UP"!

IPH runway is really too short. I think less than 6000ft if I'm not mistaken. IPH is scary to fly into on any day. It requires special attention, only captains can do takeoffs and landings there. With all those limestone hills around, during bad weather IPH is best left unlanded. And yes, I totally agree that AK is using this as an excuse not to fly a loss-making route. Aircraft less than certain weights are not allowed to land at KLIA, barring special requests (dimplomatic,, emergency, etc). Therefore you won't see F50's doing the route. Maybe JHB-IPH perhaps, or ideally SZB-IPH.