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Azri M.

MAS stopping flights to Stockholm and NY?

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If the ARN-EWR flights are bleeding so badly and needed to be axed, what about the flights to Buenos Aires? Is that route fairing better or is it being maintained just to support the 6-continent status?

 

Would not this be an opportune time for MAS to consolidate further and re-look its entire value proposition, product and image? Growth can come thereafter - remembering that many airlines have done a lot of reflecting and re-engineering in their product/services offerings during these lean times and will be ready to spring forward when the economic situation improves. If MAS does not do the same and the economies are nursed back to health, it will once again be trying to compete with an inferior product offering. The airline cannot keep marketing itself based on having accolades such as "Best Cabin Crew" and "5-Star airline" because these don't suddenly make the desired cabin amenities pop up in the cabin.

 

I am very encouraged by what's happening at Garuda and Philippine Airlines as both have studied and made timely decisions to replace their fuel-inefficient long-haul fleet with B777-300ERs. Even Biman has done so, albeit having to acquire second-hand B777-200s in the interim.

 

KC Sim

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Would not this be an opportune time for MAS to consolidate further and re-look its entire value proposition, product and image? Growth can come thereafter - remembering that many airlines have done a lot of reflecting and re-engineering in their product/services offerings during these lean times and will be ready to spring forward when the economic situation improves. If MAS does not do the same and the economies are nursed back to health, it will once again be trying to compete with an inferior product offering. The airline cannot keep marketing itself based on having accolades such as "Best Cabin Crew" and "5-Star airline" because these don't suddenly make the desired cabin amenities pop up in the cabin.

It is easier said than done.

 

How difficult was it for Idris Jala to just push this axing through? It was mentioned when he took over the reigns, and only now it happened and the excuse was Visit Malaysia Year 2007. It is now past the mid point of 2009 and the route will only be canned in the 3rd quarter.

 

The sooner the stakeholders rid themselves of the "flag carrier" notion the better. As it is a lot of them are still your old-schooled senior government officials and as to whether they have any idea how to run an airline, I trust the decisions made speak for themselves. I fear that it will forever be an uphill task for Idris Jala and whoever's taking over him looking at how the ex-PM was appointed as an advisor to the airline. Advise what? Telling all to take it easy that what is happening to the airline is "takhdir"? Seriously...

 

PAL and Garuda as you rightfully mentioned has recently been held up in good light as comparisons against MAS. I applaud those two carriers for the headway they have made in recent times and prove you do not need to be no. 1, just make sure you offer a solid and consistent product worthy of mention - the accolades will follow accordingly from the public. They do not claim to be no. 1, nor the largest, nor the best or whatever superlative adjective you can think of.

 

So if the MAS peeps are reading this forum, do take the rumblings here as a wake up call because time wait for no man. Resting on your laurels by putting off fleet replacement plans because of the "economic crisis" is already the first signs of a lack of foresight. Doesn't the cyclical nature of such a crisis mean anything?

 

So while Idris Jala is still the CEO, he does answer to the people above him... and it is these people above him who need to get a HUGE dose of reality check. MH is NOT the global player you all make it out to be. So what if you serve 6 continents on tax payers' dole? A Proton Satria will never be a Lotus no matter how many badges you slap on the car boot.

Edited by Ryan Soh

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I'm not surprised.

 

It's rather strange that EWR is out; if one considers: -

 


  •  
  • EWR has good popualtion base , slightly more than LON and not forgetting it could have been a gateway / hub to the East Coast of more than 100 million population ( that is if the hub and spoke really works beyond EWR to IAD / YYZ / ORD and many more.)
  • Not forgetting the above has one of the highest middle income groups in the world.
  • NYC and New Jersey area has the highest Malaysian Population and most of them are Executives with decent pay and definately can afford to fly home at least once a year.
  • That it is one of the main financial centre's in the world with most of the funds are most likely may have transacted via NY. Wouldn't regular air services would help international trade and finance to Malaysia? ZRH is already out; what's next?

 

However, on the otherside, the failure of this route .....


  •  
  • Stiff competition from Middle East Carriers and the Neightbour down south.
  • Irregular frequencies and used to have irregular schedules of flights, created great inconveniences ; particularly to Business Community.
  • MH 772 may be too big for the route under current Economic Slowdown; Perhaps , 332 / 763 / 764 would have been perfect.
  • Flying via Secondary cities ( ARN) does not give good fifth freedom volume and yield.
  • High operating costs for such minimal ( 2 - 3 weekly ) flights on longhaul flights would be a real challenge. Wonder how does MH perform on the EZE route?
  • Too long flight, difficult to promote exotic tropical holiday ; when Mexico , Carribean is just 3-4 hours away.

 

As a consequence to this decision , the one down south will gain ( just like ZRH ) . Won't be surprise if daily A345 is resumed and 388 services being launched to JFK.

 

The argument of "connecting" via AMS or LAX for NYC ; is not attractive at this moment as ..

Would translate to at least 2 hours extra for the hassle of connecting. Would rather take the nonstop 345 from down south and overall travelling time still reduced; despite 2 hours for connection down there.

Frequent Flyer is not properly streamline with the "partner" airlines ; No enrich Tier Bonus

 

In the end ; it is sad to c the Wau flying away from another major airport gateway ( although it is just EWR and not JFK).

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i dont get it...how will MH suspend flight to New york will benefit Middle Eastern airlines? didnt MH quit the DXB-EWR route when EK started to fly from Dubai to New York? correct me if im wrong..

If someone is travelling from Malaysia to NYC, then it does not matter whether the intermediate point is in the Middle East or Europe, does it? With the current promotional fares offered by Middle Eastern carriers, the cost is also attractive.

 

Here is a posting I picked up from a.net:

 

Hear hear... It is about time this route goes. The whole airline (not just this route) has been handled very badly and God only knows what their next stupid move is?

 

However, credit has to be given when it is due. The pressure for this route to be cut has been very high when the new CEO took over and HE wanted to axe EWR. This decision was held back because the government intervened (no surprise) due to the Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and gave it an new lease of [borrowed] life. 2007 has come and gone but the "Visit Malaysia Year 2007 decals stubbornly refused to come off. Instead the "2007" bit was taken out leaving the rest of the decals to rot on the fuselage untill recently. Seriously, the decals were all brown and off coloured even before 2007 was up.

 

Only now has the rest of the decals come off so it is only fitting EWR gets the can, only now when the government has decided they have dragged the Visit Malaysia campaign long enough. I guess they finally realised we are passed the mid point of 2009.

 

It is not easy on the present CEO to force these changes down the company who have for the longest time been nothing but a plaything for government officials bent on re-living past glories. They want to show the world that the national carrier of Malaysia can serve all the continents of the world. Doesnt matter if we bleed, but we are serving all the continents! Letting go of the cord is not be easy and won't happen overnight so it will take a long while before people in MAS will finally get the idea of tough love.

 

Who really knows how profitable this carrier really is? They own NONE of their aircrafts because the government created a company to buy these assets to "lease" it back to them. Who knows why do they still keep strange routings like KUL-JNB-CPT-EZE after all this time? Who knows why do they keep changing ad agencies to handle their campaigns and they cannot seem to decide on one common objective? Who knows why would they introduce European-styled JCL cabins in Asia only to quickly rebrand them as YCL+ but the price paid is almost the same? Who knows why MAS even exists? Who knows? Who knows? Who knows?

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The demise of KUL/EWR was destined when first launch and never been profitable;

- 772 could not carry profitable load between DXB/EWR. MH tried to minimize losses by having morning departure from EWR and arrive KUL late at night i.e. not convenient for transit pax. SQ arrive EWR in the morning, depart in the evening and arrive SIN in the morning.

- Assigned one aircraft on this route i.e. 3 flights/week.

- Didn’t code share with other airline at DXB to serve the Middle East market.

- Apparently, 772 was flown to EWR to be different from others.

 

KUL/LAX has never been profitable either :(

 

:drinks:

Edited by KK Lee

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The demise of KUL/EWR was destined when first launch and never been profitable;

- 772 could not carry profitable load between DXB/EWR. MH tried to minimize losses by having morning departure from EWR and arrive KUL late at night i.e. not convenient for transit pax. SQ arrive EWR in the morning, depart in the evening and arrive SIN in the morning.

- Assigned one aircraft on this route i.e. 3 flights/week.

- Didn’t code share with other airline at DXB to serve the Middle East market.

- Apparently, 772 was flown to EWR to be different from others.

 

KUL/LAX has never been profitable either :(

 

:drinks:

 

FYI, had the opportunity to fly MH to EWR when it was via DXB ( circa. 1999 and pre EK JFK service and b4 9/11); was informed by MH crew and particularly by DXB agents, the load was really good and there's good demand. Perhaps it was that short time that MH did make money to EWR ; especially being the only carrier to offer the excellent 5 star service between Mid East and US East Coast. Mind u GCCL and EY was almost full then.

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Saturday October 3, 2009

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/10/3/nation/4837753&sec=nation

 

Last MAS flight out of New York

By LIM AI LEE

 

NEW YORK: The 19-hour flight to Kuala Lumpur which took off from here at 10pm on Thursday (10am Friday, Malaysian time) turned out to be a sentimental journey for many passengers and crew.

 

MH91 was Malaysia Airlines’ farewell flight from the Big Apple as Malaysia’s national carrier has decided to suspend its Kuala Lumpur-New York route.

 

As the plane prepared for take-off from the Newark Airport, it was given a water salutation normally reserved for aircraft making their debut at an airport.

 

A total 188 passengers boarded the flight, including eight members from the Malaysian national darts team who had just won a bronze medal at the World Darts Championship in North Carolina.

 

“We are happy to catch the last flight home but at the same time, disappointed that MAS will stop flying from New York after tonight,”said team member Sazali A. Rahman from Labuan.

 

Pilot Kapt Badrul Hisham Zainal Abdin said he hoped MAS would change its mind about suspending the flight.

 

“The United States is Malaysia’s largest trading partner but direct acccess has now been reduced to just Los Angeles,” he noted.

 

MAS area vice-president (Eastern USA) Malkit Singh and station manager Kamili Md Amin were present to ensure that things went smoothly. MAS airport staff and those from its Manhattan office were also there.

 

The New York-Kuala Lumpur flight has been operating since 1998, initially transiting in Dubai and since Nov 2004, in Stockholm. In July this year, the airline announced that it was suspending the flight from Oct 1 due to a drop in demand following the global economic crisis.

 

Also on the flight were Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman and 13 Malaysian delegates who were in New York to attend the United Nations general assembly.

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MH has stopped so many flights these years... It seems to me like MH is going to be wiped out from most places of the map, except for this region...

 

To me, it's like the case of local universities such as UM, etc. UM once was a university on par with many other true universities, with world reknown faculties--world reknown is not that important, but they did produce results.

 

Today, what's in UM? Debates, lots of debates, and losers trying aimlessly to defend what is no longer theirs--world ranking.

 

If we are going to keep something we want to call our own, we gonna trade it with other things. I can't make this precise, but you understand what I mean.

 

If MH is to shine, really shine, please MH be serious about it.

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I was chatting to a MAS manager who is involved with the route. The loads on the NYK sector were not great however the STO sector were good. The issue was yields and the cost of operating a station at STO for a limited schedule flight was too great.

 

In addition the 777 which was to be used on the route was moved to be used on the LAX service.

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188 out of 400+ seats is a bad load... :blink:

 

ARN will still be operated by 777 ? :huh:

 

AMS has reverted back to 744 since 01oct09 and MH has started a mega sales-drive for the coming Winter period overhere, selling return tickets to KUL for just 549 Euros and 559 to East-Malaysia...also Indonesia and Viet Nam are other 'prime markets' according MH AMS...

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ARN was axed too. Now MH only have code share flights into ARN with KL via AMS.

 

KUL-ARN 1234567 2359 1215 MH16 744 FCY 0605 AMS 1010 MH9203 734 CY

ARN-KUL 1234567 0620 0645 MH9202 734 CY 0835 AMS 1200 MH17 744 FCY

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188 out of 400+ seats is a bad load... :blink:

 

ARN will still be operated by 777 ? :huh:

 

AMS has reverted back to 744 since 01oct09 and MH has started a mega sales-drive for the coming Winter period overhere, selling return tickets to KUL for just 549 Euros and 559 to East-Malaysia...also Indonesia and Viet Nam are other 'prime markets' according MH AMS...

 

The last period before MAS shut the route down the had really cheap return tickets between ARN and EWR, for 249-275€.

 

I haven't heard anything that ARN will still be operated by 777 though I hope they'll come back, I think they can easily beat Thai, that has daily flights to ARN with old 747s if the price is right, and probably good connections to Thailand etc.

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Or Pieter may be right!

 

I've read at a swedish forum and they've found that there are still some flights to ARN from KUL. I believe that some flights will be via AMS too.

 

Flight numbers that are found at the e-timetable on MH's website is 7302-7304, there may be some others too, these were shown on the dates at 17-18 dec.

 

Anyone with some more info?

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MH AMS has announced these extra 777 flights already, to facilitate the 'heavy' XMAS/NY traffic, esp. to Indonesia...some 777 flights will operate non-stop while others will go via ARN...they will only operate in December/January...

 

Once again, these are in addition to MH16/17 by 744... :blink:

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