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.

This kind of news makes one wonder what kind of business planning MAS employs. Take for example the BKI-PER route. When the route was introduced in January 2011, MAS started with thrice weekly flights. A year later, the route was suspended and now, MAS starting the route again. MAS has to market the route again to passengers. In hindsight, MAS could've reduced the frequency from thrice to twice weekly instead of suspending the route altogether. The same goes with the other suspended routes. I took the flight from BKI to PER in June last year and the load looked ok. My fellow passengers were Australians coming back from other MAS far east destinations or Sabah and Malaysia students going off to study in Australia. And yes, midnight flight from BKI arriving in the morning in PER is preferable for those connecting on flights to domestic destinations in Australia. Perhaps MAS business planners could scour malaysianwings for ideas and even offer employment as business planners to some regular posters here :-)

Just sharing for the fun of it! • Kota Kinabalu (Old terminal, terminals 1 & 2) • Subang (Terminals 1 & 2) • KLIA [Note: Arrived on first day of operations and had to wait for almost an hour in the aircraft for someone to operate the aerobridge. Some friends had problems with their checked-in luggage those early days.] • LCCT KLI • Miri • Bintulu (New and old) [Note: The old airport beat all other airports for location. You could walk to the hotel from the airport gate.] • Kuching • Labuan • Sandakan • Lahad Datu • Tawau (New) • Ipoh • Alor Setar • Penang • Kuala Terengganu • Kerteh • Kuantan • Senai, Johor Bahru • Langkawi • Singapore (Terminals 1, 2, 3 and Budget Terminal) • Los Angeles • Dallas Fort Worth (Love) • Tulsa • Chicago (O'Hare & Midway) • Dubai • Ashkabad • Abu Dhabi • Istanbul • Bangkok (Don Muang & Suvarnabhumi) • Frankfurt • Amsterdam • London Heathrow • Paris (CDG) • Rome • Jakarta (CGK) • Karachi • Islamabad • Ho Chi Minh City • Siam Reap • Phnom Penh • Bandar Seri Begawan • Hong Kong (Chep Lap Kok) • Surabaya • Yogyakarta • Padang • Perth • Sydney • Brisbane • Canberra • Adelaide • Clark Philippines • Yangon • Shenzhen • Tokyo (Narita) • Zurich • Baku • Johannesburg • Maputo

My list & also my first post (Hello everybody!)- 1. Malaysia Airlines 2. Delta Airlines 3. Southwest Airlines 4. American Airlines 5. Pelangi Airlines 6. Turkmenistan Airlines 7. Turkish Airlines 8. Singapore Airlines 9. Royal Brunei 10. Thai Air 11. Lufthansa 12. Swissair 13. Alitalia 14. Airasia (Malaysia, Thailand & Indonesia) 15. Merpati Nusantara Airlines 16. Garuda Indonesia 17. SilkAir 18. Pakistan International Airlines 19. Cathay Pacific 20. Virgin Blue 21. South African Airways 22. MASWings 23. Tiger Airways 24. Jetstar Asia 25. Firefly