jaehn

If you are feeling adventurous, you can fly on Turkmenistan Airlines (T5) Boeing 757s from Bangkok/Beijing to London/Birmingham/Frankfurt/Istanbul via Ashgabat, the capital city. If you'd like, you can put in a night or two in Ashgabat. AFAIK, Malaysians do not need visas to enter the country. FYI, I worked in there from 1998 to 2002. The Ashgabat- Bangkok route then was (and probably still is) the fastest and easiest way to get home to Malaysia. T5 website: http://www.turkmenairlines.com/ or http://www.flyturkmenistanairlines.eu/

From the report: Ranking from no 1 to 60 (safest is no 1) 1 Finnair 2 Air New Zealand 3 Cathay Pacific 4 Emirates 5 Etihad Airways 6 EVA Air 7 TAP Portugal 8 Hainan Airlines 9 Virgin Australia 10 British Airways 11 Lufthansa 12 All Nippon Airways 13 Qantas 14 JetBlue Airways 15 Virgin Atlantic Airways 16 Transaero Airlines 17 EasyJet 18 Thomas Cook Airlines 19 WestJet 20 Jetstar Airways NEU 4) 21 Southwest Airlines 22 Qatar Airways 23 Air Berlin 24 EL AL NEU 25 Air Canada 26 Thomsonfly 27 KLM 28 Delta Air Lines 29 AirAsia 30 Singapore Airlines 31 United Airlines 32 Ryanair 33 Swiss 34 Condor NEU 35 Malaysia Airlines 36 China Eastern Airlines 37 Jet Airways 38 Alitalia 39 Aeroflot ­ Russian Airlines 40 LAN Airlines 41 Air France 42 American Airlines 43 Air China 44 US Airways 45 Alaska Airlines 46 Asiana 47 Japan Airlines 48 China Southern Airlines 49 Iberia 50 SAS Scandinavian Airlines 51 SkyWest Airlines 52 South African Airways 53 Thai Airways International 54 Turkish Airlines 55 Saudia 56 Korean Air 57 GOL Transportes Aéreos 58 Air India 59 TAM Airlines 60 China Airlines No Indonesian airlines on the list. I guess they are safe hahaha

The retro jet was in town today. Too bad I didn't bring my camera with me.

Don't know if this counts but some of MASwings ATRs have the 1Malaysia logo next to their aft doors.

Here are a couple of links on turboprop operations: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2121069,00.html http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303649504577495000914311914.html

From what I read, fuel costs for turboprops are cheaper compared to that of jets for flights of shorter distances or duration. Most, if not all, Maswings flights (not so familiar with Firefly) are within this category. As such, it's appropriate for the airline to use ATR72's.

Great shots of 9M-MXA. Love it!

Because of not enough passengers to fill the big planes up. Besides most destinations are within reach of the B737s.

To each, his or her own. Its your money, you choose who you want to and of course, can fly with.

Stop giving them ideas. Now, they just might! hahaha

According to Malaysia Airlines inflight magazine, Going Places, MASwings has 4 DHC-6 Twin Otter aircrafts. The rego and names of the ten MASwings ATR72-500 aircratfs are as follows (not in the magazine): 9M-MWA "Kuching" 9M-MWB "Kinabalu" 9M-MWC "Mulu" 9M-MWD "Sandakan" 9M-MWE "Mukah" 9M-MWF "Miri" 9M-MWG "Sipadan" 9M-MWH "Layang Layang" 9M-MWI "Bario" 9M-MWJ "Libaran"

Actually driving from KK to Labuan is nearer than driving from KK to Tawau/Semporna. There's airport in Labuan with fewer than twenty flights a day (mostly MASwings ATR72-500 flights).

Many years ago (in the early 1990's), I took a MAS Fokker F50 from Kuching to KL. The flight took about 3 1/2 to 4 hours and flew from Kuching to the direction of JB and then up the peninsular to KL. I think it may be possible to use the ATR72 between Singapore and Kuching. But Singapore to KK, that's going to involve at least a couple of stops.