Foreign Carriers and Malaysia

[Adam Lawrence 0]

Turkmenistan Airlines Feb/Mar 2024 Kuala Lumpur Aircraft Changes

Turkmenistan Airlines since late-February 2024 adjusted operational aircraft on Ashgabat – Kuala Lumpur route. Launched on 15FEB24 initially with 777-200LR, the airline switched to the -300ER variant since 22FEB24. The -300ER aircraft is currently scheduled once weekly until 28MAR24 inclusive.

T5803 ASB0530 – 1620KUL 77W 4
T5804 KUL1820 – 2350ASB 77W 4

Schedules on/after 04APR24 tentatively lists 777-200LR.

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/240229-t51q24my

Edited February 29 by Adam Lawrence

[JuliusWong 0]

Scoot to fly new Embraer jets to six destinations in Malaysia and Thailand

Esther Loi UPDATED MAR 05, 2024, 09:34 PM

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/scoot-to-fly-new-embraer-jets-to-six-destinations-in-malaysia-and-thailand

SINGAPORE - From May 2024, Scoot will operate flights from Singapore to six South-east Asian destinations with its new fleet of Embraer E190-E2 planes.

The six places are new destinations Koh Samui in Thailand and Sibu in Malaysia, as well as existing destinations comprising Hat Yai and Krabi in Thailand, and Kuantan and Miri in Malaysia, said Singapore Airlines’ budget arm Scoot in a statement on March 5.

The airline’s E190-E2 services are expected to start on May 7, after the first jet is delivered in April, said Scoot.

Flights to Krabi, Hat Yai and Koh Samui in Thailand, as well as Miri in Malaysia will begin in May, while flights to Kuantan and Sibu in Malaysia will start from June.

The first E190-E2 jet will be used on Scoot’s existing flights to Hat Yai and Krabi from May 7, increasing flight frequencies to both destinations from seven to 10 times every week.

This comes after Scoot initially said in a statement that the first plane was expected to arrive in March, as part of the five that will be delivered in 2024, when announcing its purchase of nine Embraer planes on Feb 17.

The airline later updated that four more jets will be delivered by the end of 2024, with the remaining four arriving by the end of 2025, according to Embraer’s Asia-Pacific vice-president Raul Villaron, who was speaking at a media launch of a flight simulator for Embraer E2 jets at the Singapore-CAE Flight Training Centre on Feb 20.

Scoot added on March 5 that the second E190-E2 jet is also scheduled for delivery in April, allowing the carrier to operate flights to four more cities: Koh Samui in Thailand, as well as Sibu, Kuantan and Miri in Malaysia.

With the delivery of these two planes, the airline will operate 103 and 92 weekly flights to Malaysia and Thailand respectively by June.

The new routes to Koh Samui and Sibu will increase Scoot’s network to 69 destinations.

Sales for these flights operated by E190-E2 jets will be progressively available for booking via Scoot’s website, mobile app and other channels. Economy class fares, inclusive of taxes, start from $172 to Koh Samui and $72 to Sibu.

The E190-E2 jet has a range of 5,278km, or six hours of flight time. As the smallest aircraft in Scoot’s fleet, it can seat up to 112 passengers.

[Robert 0]

30 minutes ago, JuliusWong said:

Scoot to fly new Embraer jets to six destinations in Malaysia and Thailand

Esther Loi UPDATED MAR 05, 2024, 09:34 PM

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/scoot-to-fly-new-embraer-jets-to-six-destinations-in-malaysia-and-thailand

SINGAPORE - From May 2024, Scoot will operate flights from Singapore to six South-east Asian destinations with its new fleet of Embraer E190-E2 planes.

The six places are new destinations Koh Samui in Thailand and Sibu in Malaysia, as well as existing destinations comprising Hat Yai and Krabi in Thailand, and Kuantan and Miri in Malaysia, said Singapore Airlines’ budget arm Scoot in a statement on March 5.

The airline’s E190-E2 services are expected to start on May 7, after the first jet is delivered in April, said Scoot.

Flights to Krabi, Hat Yai and Koh Samui in Thailand, as well as Miri in Malaysia will begin in May, while flights to Kuantan and Sibu in Malaysia will start from June.

The first E190-E2 jet will be used on Scoot’s existing flights to Hat Yai and Krabi from May 7, increasing flight frequencies to both destinations from seven to 10 times every week.

This comes after Scoot initially said in a statement that the first plane was expected to arrive in March, as part of the five that will be delivered in 2024, when announcing its purchase of nine Embraer planes on Feb 17.

The airline later updated that four more jets will be delivered by the end of 2024, with the remaining four arriving by the end of 2025, according to Embraer’s Asia-Pacific vice-president Raul Villaron, who was speaking at a media launch of a flight simulator for Embraer E2 jets at the Singapore-CAE Flight Training Centre on Feb 20.

Scoot added on March 5 that the second E190-E2 jet is also scheduled for delivery in April, allowing the carrier to operate flights to four more cities: Koh Samui in Thailand, as well as Sibu, Kuantan and Miri in Malaysia.

With the delivery of these two planes, the airline will operate 103 and 92 weekly flights to Malaysia and Thailand respectively by June.

The new routes to Koh Samui and Sibu will increase Scoot’s network to 69 destinations.

Sales for these flights operated by E190-E2 jets will be progressively available for booking via Scoot’s website, mobile app and other channels. Economy class fares, inclusive of taxes, start from $172 to Koh Samui and $72 to Sibu.

The E190-E2 jet has a range of 5,278km, or six hours of flight time. As the smallest aircraft in Scoot’s fleet, it can seat up to 112 passengers.

suspect it will be a cramped cabin with 29' seat pitch. Gate staff will need to be strict with hand luggage because cabin bins are a lot smaller than the A320.

[JuliusWong 0]

34 minutes ago, Robert said:

suspect it will be a cramped cabin with 29' seat pitch. Gate staff will need to be strict with hand luggage because cabin bins are a lot smaller than the A320.

Will be very cramped. This seat map is from Helvetic Airways E190-E2 with 110 seats. 

[KK Lee 5]

On 3/6/2024 at 10:59 AM, JuliusWong said:

Scoot to fly new Embraer jets to six destinations in Malaysia and Thailand

Esther Loi UPDATED MAR 05, 2024, 09:34 PM

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/transport/scoot-to-fly-new-embraer-jets-to-six-destinations-in-malaysia-and-thailand

TR regional jets will likely developed to feed SQ connection to/from Australia, EU, etc like AF, LH, KL in EUR. Once TR reached this stage, MH could forget to return to EUR outside LHR, and will be hammered on AUS routes.

[Craig 0]

Per airlineroute, Juneyao is adding PVG-PEN beginning 31 May 2024 with 4 weekly flights. Surprisingly, KUL was not on the list even though I've read somewhere they are interested in KUL.

HO1365 PVG1730 - 2300PEN 320 x246
HO1366 PEN0005 - 0525PVG 320 x357

If I remember correctly, this was the largest unserved route for PEN-China.

Edited March 13 by Craig

[Craig 0]

Coming on the heels of Juneyao's PVG-PEN flights, MU will be introducing daily KMG-KUL flights beginning 31 March 2024 for a month (for now).

Schedule:
MU9629 KMG1725 – 2140KUL 320 D
MU9630 KUL2240 – 0155+1KMG 320 D

Why do Chinese carriers love operating at these odd hours 😅

[Robert 0]

1 minute ago, Craig said:

Coming on the heels of Juneyao's PVG-PEN flights, MU will be introducing daily KMG-KUL flights beginning 31 March 2024 for a month (for now).

Schedule:
MU9629 KMG1725 – 2140KUL 320 D
MU9630 KUL2240 – 0155+1KMG 320 D

Why do Chinese carriers love operating at these odd hours 😅

is it cheaper for airlines? 
I've seen similar with flights between the Philippines and Singapore

[Craig 0]

Just now, Robert said:

is it cheaper for airlines? 
I've seen similar with flights between the Philippines and Singapore

Don't know. Maybe due to aircraft/slot availability. But usually it's usually the lower yield flights that have these operating hours. KMG-KUL is fine, but KUL-KMG is not. A 2AM arrival means a 3AM back home or to your hotel if you are traveling to KMG. I think you are right that Cebu Pacific/PAL offers these sort of flights between MNL and SIN/KUL as well.
 

The new Shenzhen Airlines second daily flight arrives KUL around 3AM and departs KUL around 4AM. Not ideal for most pax.

[JuliusWong 0]

43 minutes ago, Robert said:

is it cheaper for airlines? 
I've seen similar with flights between the Philippines and Singapore

Yes, definitely cheaper. The various fee and charges are cheaper at late night/ graveyard hours compared to those early morning, mid afternoon and evening departures. Cebu Pacific thrives in such areas to save cost, AirAsia Group wise is quite the opposite. 

[flee 5]

Flying at those hours increases aircraft utilisation - so the marginal cost of operating these flights is lower. Aircraft don't make money while they are on the ground.

[Robert 0]

21 minutes ago, flee said:

Flying at those hours increases aircraft utilisation - so the marginal cost of operating these flights is lower. Aircraft don't make money while they are on the ground.

Im surprised that Air Asia doesn't do this 

[flee 5]

10 minutes ago, Robert said:

Im surprised that Air Asia doesn't do this 

I think Airasia's revenue base is not just flights - I believe their Santan business is quite good too. Plus all the other ancillary and supporting activities, they might find it OK not to operate flights round the clock. IIRC Airasia disclosed some time ago that their average utlisation is around 12 to 14 hours per day - flying between 4-8 sectors. Not sure what the numbers are these days.  

[jahur 0]

Believe offpeak hours have lower parking rates and charges for most busy airports. Which is what the chinese and south korean carriers have been going for BKI when yields are low to command prime hours.

Airasia it has been noted a large source of their income has been auxillary based like passenger penalties, luggage, insurance, add-ons etc over the actual barely breakeven base fare. 

[JuliusWong 0]

1 hour ago, Robert said:

Im surprised that Air Asia doesn't do this 

AirAsia's first flight for the day start at around 5am (used to be 6am), ends around 11:50pm if I am not mistaken. In between the downtime, the engineering crew will fix as many defects as they can based on daily report. Each airframe will do around six to eight sectors per day. That's that much you can push with a metal tube, anything more your aircraft will be a hangar queen soon or God forbid falling off the skies if appropriate checks are not done in tween daily flights.

[JuliusWong 0]

On 3/10/2024 at 3:16 PM, KK Lee said:

TR regional jets will likely developed to feed SQ connection to/from Australia, EU, etc like AF, LH, KL in EUR. Once TR reached this stage, MH could forget to return to EUR outside LHR, and will be hammered on AUS routes.

SQ Group definitely has this in their mind. Just saw someone booked SBW-EWR, with 37 hours layover. LOL.

They will definitely do KUA/MYY/SBW/KCH-PER/SYD/MEL/BNE. A walk in the park for them.......

[KK Lee 5]

On 3/14/2024 at 1:08 PM, jahur said:

Believe offpeak hours have lower parking rates and charges for most busy airports. Which is what the chinese and south korean carriers have been going for BKI when yields are low to command prime hours.

Airasia it has been noted a large source of their income has been auxillary based like passenger penalties, luggage, insurance, add-ons etc over the actual barely breakeven base fare. 

PRC and Korean tourists to BKI are mostly holiday makers and seasonal.

 

On 3/14/2024 at 10:46 AM, Craig said:

Don't know. Maybe due to aircraft/slot availability. But usually it's usually the lower yield flights that have these operating hours. KMG-KUL is fine, but KUL-KMG is not. A 2AM arrival means a 3AM back home or to your hotel if you are traveling to KMG. I think you are right that Cebu Pacific/PAL offers these sort of flights between MNL and SIN/KUL as well.
 

The new Shenzhen Airlines second daily flight arrives KUL around 3AM and departs KUL around 4AM. Not ideal for most pax.

PRC airlines often use redeye flight to test the market/route. If load is justified, they may move to day time.

 

[Pall 0]

On 3/14/2024 at 1:51 PM, JuliusWong said:

AirAsia's first flight for the day start at around 5am (used to be 6am), ends around 11:50pm if I am not mistaken. In between the downtime, the engineering crew will fix as many defects as they can based on daily report. Each airframe will do around six to eight sectors per day. That's that much you can push with a metal tube, anything more your aircraft will be a hangar queen soon or God forbid falling off the skies if appropriate checks are not done in tween daily flights.

They've got dozen's of planes doing overnight red-eyes. 

[Craig 0]

3 hours ago, KK Lee said:

PRC airlines often use redeye flight to test the market/route. If load is justified, they may move to day time.

New flights from PRC were launched at decent hours. MU's and GJ's HGH-KUL, MF's CKG-KUL as well as CA's TFU-KUL came to mind. 3U's TFU-KUL is decent but KUL-TFU is a red-eye that's blocked at 5:30 even though CA, OD, and D7 blocks it around 4:30-4:45. Anyway, this is only scheduled to run for a month. We shall see.

[Craig 0]

It appears that MU will be resuming PKX-KUL beginning late April. 

MU795 PKX1700 – 2350KUL 332 Dx246
MU796 KUL0055 – 0710PKX 332 Dx357

And CZ will up gauge CZ 8301/8302 (mid day departure ex-CAN and 1800 departure ex-KUL) to 789, making 2x daily 789 to KUL.

Edited March 16 by Craig

[Adam Lawrence 0]

Cambodia Airways will launch its first flight from Phnom Penh to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on April 11, 2024. The flight will operate three times a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=712793444392509&set=a.548192870852568

[Adam Lawrence 0]

It seems there will be flight from Tehran (Imam Khomeini) by Mahan Air to KL starting on March 21. Flight will be operated on every Thursday:

https://www.mahanair.co.ir/en/booking/passenger

[Adam Lawrence 0]

Juneyao Air also announced the launch of direct flights between the Kunming and Kuala Lumpur, commencing on May 31st, 2024

https://cj.my/142558/penang-targets-more-direct-flights-to-boost-tourism/

[Craig 0]

Air Algérie has canceled seasonal KUL flights. Not a huge loss tho - reservations were never opened and if you've ever seen an Air Algérie office, there's always a huge queue outside 😅

1 hour ago, Adam Lawrence said:

Juneyao Air also announced the launch of direct flights between the Kunming and Kuala Lumpur, commencing on May 31st, 2024

What an odd city to start from. It's not Juneyao's focus city and KUL is HO's only international destination from KMG (plus a handful of other Chinese cities that HO can connect to). Flights still haven't appear in the GDS tho.

On another news, MU will be continuing their KMG-KUL service beyond April until end of October for now and flight leaves both KMG and KUL about an hour earlier from May (still early morning arrival into KMG at 01:00).

[JuliusWong 0]

China government is playing dirty politics now via CAAC. They are permitting their own airlines,. be it CN3 or minor airlines to mount flights from various secondary cities to KUL, PEN and BKI, but not from big airports like PKX, PEK, PVG and CAN.

Notice how they introduced a slew of new flights into Malaysia and Singapore from Tier 2 cities and below, but not from Tier 1, some of them unseen before COVID era.

Singapore Airlines is now suffering from this recent move, as they are now forced to cancel Chengdu and Chongqing at the last minute notice "after failing to get approval from authorities there to continue flying to the two cities". Both destinations were only resumed last year November 2023. This is despite China recently granted Singapore passholder 30-days visa free visit and Singapore government waived visa requirement for China passport holders.