AK suspends KL-Tianjin flight

[Naim 6]

So easy they cancel! Luckily am not traveling to Tianjin in Jan '10; Chengdu yes.

 

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1. Why is the Tianjin flight suspended?

AirAsia is suspending the flight due to commercial reasons and adverse weather conditions

 

2. Will this be temporary? If yes, when will the flight resume?

The management of AirAsia will be monitoring and reviewing the case. As of today, we have temporarily suspended flights between 23/11/09 and 31/1/2010 Flights are likely to resume anytime between the first half of next year pending assessment of the current situation.

 

3. How will AirAsia compensate the guests who are affected?

Affected passengers are given the option of a full refund

 

4. How has the affected guests been notified of the suspension of the Kuala Lumpur- Tianjin route?

Guests have been notified via email, and sms notification has been carried out.

 

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=18801397386&topic=11082

[Y. J. Foo 0]

Someone at Chinese Cari managed to get this response from Azran:

 

 

 

Azran Osman-Rani October 22 at 4:18pm

We're losing a lot of money on Tianjin because of poor response. I'm putting it on hold to decide whether we cancel Tianjin completely or to cut frequency (e.g., move down to 3-4 times a week). We'll finalize decision by tomorrow

 

 

 

 

Things aren't that rosy for D7??

 

 

[Waiping 12]

not uncommon for AK/D7. Suka-suka they cancel their flights.

[Sohai Lim 0]

who are you here to judge?

no money = cut.

correct

[Peter Smith 1]

Airlines are businesses, please do not forget this. If a business is not making money on product X and they have no obligations (be it commercial or government, etc) to continue, then to ensure they do not go bankrupt they modify the product or simply discontinue it. A business not making money is doomed to fail, simple.

 

Please also keep in mind that a plane not flying, is a plane not making money, so i'm sure if the TSN route is dropped completely a new route will be announced shortly.

 

Given AirAsia's extremely low cost base, it has a much higher break even load factor than the traditional legacy carriers and thus it is important in the airlines long term outlook to drop unprofitable routes. The only other option is to increase fares across the board to absorb the losses. This however goes against pretty much everything AirAsia stands for.

 

Its a shame they're dropping the routes, never-the-less, as I was hoping to go back to Beijing in the not too distant future and D7 probably would've been my airline of choice.

[flee 5]

Agree with you Liam - the airline provides a service. If there is no demand for the service, or the demand levels are not sufficient to cover the costs of providing the service, then it does not make sense to continue.

 

D7 is very popular with the Australian public - so it is important that they should push to secure the SYD route to give them even more choices. D7 will have to decide if they should give TSN another chance after the harsh winter in northern China. I don't think there are many visitors wishing to tour Beijing in the depths of winter.

[Waiping 12]

Cancel due to economical reason is ok. Cancel due to adverse weather condition? Come on. It's a 3 month cancellation.

[Juergen Witte 0]

If loads (and yields) are not what D7 deems neccessary they have no choice but to discontinue.

 

But - to me it sounds more like they need the aircraft somewhere else where they can generate higher yields ...

An additional route to Australia or increase of frequency sounds plausible but i can even imagine it has something to do with the recent Paris announcement, though ...

 

Please no discussion about the A330´s range capabilities !

If D7 desperately wants Paris they would even do it with an A 330 until another A340 is availlable !!!

(I am aware that with just a single A 330 availlable for Paris it would be a thrice weekly service at most)

Edited October 31, 2009 by Juergen Witte

[flee 5]

D7 have already increased frequencies for the Gold Coast, Melbourne and Taipei routes. 3 new A333's will be delivered in 2009 and the Abu Dhabi virtual hub will open in 2 weeks. I suspect the Paris route will be operated by A333's with one stop at Abu Dhabi. However, D7 is mindful of the uncomfortable seats of current A333's and I don't think they will start the Paris service until they receive new A333's with better seats. That is why they are using the A343 to Abu Dhabi for now.

[KK Lee 5]

If D7 provides connection to Bali, Langkawi and Phuket rather than point to point may improve the load during the winter months. On the other hand, those newly rich Chinese may not tolerate D7 A333 uncomfortable seats or wanted to be seen to holiday on budget.

[flee 5]

Now you know why D7 wants to suspend this service.

 

Here is an Air Asia blog posting (I know it is from their staff, but it describes the landing attempts nicely), Beijing Adventure - Part 1:

 

The time was 11.20pm. Realizing that I have not eaten the whole day had my stomach grumbled frantically. Thank God for Old Town cafe at LCCT. The curry mee has never taste so good.

 

It was a beautiful night, and our flight to Tianjin was scheduled at 1am. It was good to see some familiar faces on this trip. With 29 of us it kind of feel like going on a field trip. Everyone was happy because we were going to Beijing to celebrate our winning for CAPA’s Airline of the year award. 3 years in a roll. Now, that’s pretty awesome.

 

For me, it’s the thought of gracing the soil of China that had me all excited. There’s something about China that intrigues me – something that I can’t quite put my fingers on. Albeit being a Malaysian Chinese and able to read, write and speak the language, I often don’t consider myself ‘Chinese’ enough. First of all, I’ve often been mistaken for a Malay, Thai and sometimes Japanese and Korean (God knows why!) Second of all, I guess I tend to see the world and human beings as One; beyond race and skin color. But the diverse culture and the way of life have never failed to intrigue me. And so is China, the land of the dragons.

 

The flight to Tianjin was pleasant and I managed to sleep for a few hours. Though seated at the economy seat I must say the A340 was really comfortable (with plenty of leg room!) for long haul flight. I wouldn’t even mind taking a 12 hour flight to London in economy that’s for sure

 

The break of dawn and the sight of the orange color horizon at 30,000 feet were breathtakingly beautiful. I could feel the excitement bursting in my veins knowing that we would be landing shortly at Tianjin Binhai International Airport.

 

However, as fate would have it, there was a runway difficulty which resulted in inability for the aircraft to land. After hovering on air for about 30 minutes, we detoured to Beijing Capital International Airport for refuel. Unfortunately we are unable to disembark at the Airport. From locating a free parking bay and the refueling took about one and half hour before we took off to Tianjin Binhai International Airport again.

 

Confusion and frustration was felt by some of the Chinese passengers but the cabin crew did a good job in controlling and explaining the situation at hand. A sense of relief was felt when we took off to Tianjin Binhai International Airport- knowing that we would be able to land and disembark soon.

 

I guess the most anticipated announcement from the Captain at that moment (for me at least) was indeed ‘Cabin crew, please be seated for landing.’ But luck wasn’t at our side. When we were about to land at Tianjin Binhai International Airport, the Captain took an emergency take off and aborted landing – due to zero visibility caused by the heavy fog.

 

Anxiety filled the aircraft and when we aborted landing for the 2nd time and I found myself consoling the Welsh couple seated beside me. Funny how at that time I wasn’t worried at all; probably because I knew we were in the good hands of Captain Hans and Captain Ling - Who did a fantastic job in updating the passengers on the flight situation.

 

Finally, we managed to land at the 3rd attempt and had everyone clapped for joy! So in all, we arrived in Tianjin at 1pm instead of 7am. We were 6 hours late but I am sure relief took precedent than any other possible negative feelings.

 

As the saying goes ‘Better be safe than sorry’. Kudos to Captain Hans, Captain Ling and the rest of the cabin crew for getting us land safely.

Edited November 3, 2009 by flee

[Waiping 12]

So how ah? Tianjin airport cannot accommodate D7 equipment?

Edited November 4, 2009 by Waiping

[Radzi 2]

So how ah? Tianjin airport cannot accommodate D7 equipment?

 

This describes a weather-related diversion. I wonder what approach aids Tianjin has.

 

Anyway they were in good hand with Capt Azhanuddin (Hans) at the control.

[Waiping 12]

This describes a weather-related diversion. I wonder what approach aids Tianjin has.

 

Anyway they were in good hand with Capt Azhanuddin (Hans) at the control.

 

Ya, but it does seems like AK committed to the route without fully taken into consideration all aspect of the route i.e. economic feasibility, airport facility etc.

 

Just to share something that happened in my office recently. A few weeks back Monday a list was passed to all staff asking if they/their family would join a BBQ trip that same Saturday. After we have made our decision within the same week the BBQ was "postponed" until further notice. Apparently this was "postponed" due to 2 reasons 1) No budget and 2) the venue does not allow for BBQ on Saturday. Logically those 2 aspect must be fulfilled before the BBQ gets a go ahead nod, right?

 

This AK issue is similar to the BBQ episode because someone who is supposed to evaluate all aspect of the route didn't do their job. Now it's bad weather, but afaik Beijing will encounter severe cold weather every winter, and things are getting worst and worst each year. Does that mean AK only intend to serve this route during non-winter season?

Edited November 4, 2009 by Waiping

[BEan 0]

TSN airport suffers from heavy fog during cold temp especially in winter and in the morning.D7 flights into TSN usually arrive early in the morning.D7 have several times delayed the TSN flight so that they arrived a bit later.plus sometimes flight arriving to TSN have been diverted PEK.this affects the rest of the scheduling.D7 have a tight flt scheduling so delays or diversion in one of the flights means it will affect other D7 flights.

 

Rescheduling the TSN flights means it'll affect other D7 flights.

Edited November 4, 2009 by BEan