MAS Charter

[Nik H. 3]

How I wish they would operate a schedule passenger operation from KUL-KCH and THEN Hajj flight to JED so that I can catch the flight on the KUL-KCH sector...too bad it's only a ferry flight! I would do almost anything to fly economy on the upper deck! Drool!

 

We would normally open the ferry sector for sale but for this year the schedule approval from the Saudis were delayed so due insufficient lead time we are unable to do so.

[Fitri Shukri 0]

In a large corporation, when plans like this fail, its one person's fault, if it succeeds, then its the corporation's success.

 

Flying pilgrims to the holy land to perform the greatest journey in a Muslim's life, is itself a great honour and ibadah for the MAS Charter team.

 

I believe, you can't be too calculative (like what the low cost chsmpion is doing) when dealing with hajj flight. Your heart must be there with the welfare, comfort and well-being of the pilgrims.

 

All the best to Capt Nik and the team.

[Nik H. 3]

Yeah... weird to see SV livery on an A330... Well, probably I used to see them on the biggies

Best of luck Capt Nik!!

 

Interesting to see Tabung Haji accepting the A330. That type is payload limited for the route.

First flight out and pallets and containers are left behind due MTOW limitations.

Second flight delayed 4 hours.

 

Even more interesting things will take place on the return leg of the Haj. Hotter temperatures, and pilgrims with heavy bags.

 

Cheap Not Good, Good Not Cheap...........

 

C'est la vie......

[flee 5]

Interesting to see Tabung Haji accepting the A330. That type is payload limited for the route.

First flight out and pallets and containers are left behind due MTOW limitations.

Second flight delayed 4 hours.

 

Even more interesting things will take place on the return leg of the Haj. Hotter temperatures, and pilgrims with heavy bags.

 

Cheap Not Good, Good Not Cheap...........

 

C'est la vie......

Another viewpoint might be that Tabung Haji was only able to secure the quota/slots that it wants by giving some of the flights to the Saudi national airline.

[charles 0]

Interesting to see Tabung Haji accepting the A330. That type is payload limited for the route.

First flight out and pallets and containers are left behind due MTOW limitations.

Second flight delayed 4 hours.

 

Even more interesting things will take place on the return leg of the Haj. Hotter temperatures, and pilgrims with heavy bags.

 

Cheap Not Good, Good Not Cheap...........

 

C'est la vie......

 

 

Any info on the kuching leg? Heard the 1st of 2 flights out of kuching is on the 16th?

[flee 5]

KUALA LUMPUR, March 3 (Bernama) -- Travel agency Apple Vacations and Conventions Sdn Bhd plans to charter direct flights to Turkey next year.

 

Managing director Koh Yock Heng said the agency saw Turkey as one of the most popular Middle East countries for the Malaysian market.

 

"We are still in the planning stage.

 

"It will most likely be next year as the Middle East country currently is a little bit unstable," he told Bernama after the launch of the company's new Hokkaido direct flight package here Thursday.

 

A similar package in collaboration with Malaysia Airlines (MAS) in December last year received overwhelming response.

 

The airline's vice president (Hajj and Charter Department), Capt Nik Ahmad Huzlan Nik Hussain, who was present at the ceremony, said: "MAS will remain committed to service this special sector and our hope to strengthen our market presence will yeild tremendous benefit to our tour partner and travelling passengers."

 

Direct flights chartered on MAS are the only direct service between Hokkaido and Kuala Lumpur. The eight-day six-night package only comes in three departure dates, namely July 8, July 14 and July 20.

 

For enquiry and bookings, log on to www.appleholiday.com.

[Mushrif A 3]

It seems that Charter's 9M-MPQ will be operating the KUL-JED vv 4x wk scheduled services from the Northern Summer schedules. 2-class operations, with biz pax seated in the "F"-cabin.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

That is not a good strategy. Only 12 Business Class seats on offer for JED on each flight? I am sure the demand is more. Plus it dilutes the F product terribly.

[Radzi 2]

That is not a good strategy. Only 12 Business Class seats on offer for JED on each flight? I am sure the demand is more. Plus it dilutes the F product terribly.

 

What is the good strategy then?

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Using the normal B744 that seats 12F, 41J and 306Y pax with the ticket is sold accordingly to the classes, which means:

 

- No pax paying J but getting F instead. No dilution over MH's F product.

- No potential J pax had to resort to Y or other airlines (SQ in particular) because of unavailability of J seats on MH because there are only 12 seats available. Even the B772 that MH sent to JED in the past has 35J seats.

- No potential F pax had to resort to EK because MH simply don't sell F for JED, which is a shame because I believe there is a demand for it (otherwise EK won't be sending their A380s twice a day here - that speaks the volume of load and yield for JED).

 

And leave MPQ to do Charter related flights.

[N Azman 0]

Your assessments above are only good if theres an overwhelming demand for front end cabin. then only MH should worry about spillover to SQ and dilution. And of course, you can't say just because DXBJED got two A380s a day, theres a lot of business traffic lah. O&D and global directional flow different mah..

 

If traffic (on relevant to MH O&Ds) is predominantly umrah groups instead of corporate, then MH strategy is spot on. Fill em up!

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Is MH done that poorly that they can't fill in 12 Business Class seats? 2 Arab families can easily fill in this 12 seater cabin in one go.

 

EK's A380 was mentioned in response that regardless if MH sends MPQ or normal 744s to JED, the F class is still can not be booked. MH is not selling it, although I believe there is a demand for it, as exhibited by EK's F. Malaysia in general is highly regarded by the Saudis, so does MH. Maybe the demand of MH's F is not as big as EK's F, but if you can sell 2 of the seats for SAR 12,000 each (with 50% loads on the J cabin), why give them to an extra 4 J passengers (from a 50% filled J cabin) who only pay SAR 5,000 each for it for nothing?

 

Not all EK's F and J traffics from JED are heading towards Europe or the Americas. Some are towards East Asia and Australia, the market that MH serves as well and should capture if marketed right.

[Sandeep G 1]

MAR: What is the target community here? Wealthy arab families or Medium Wealth Malaysian/Arab families?? Have you got statistics to show that MAS Charter has indeed poorly calculated the market?? Have you got the two-way air services agreement detailing all the nitty-gritty points about sellable seats per week so on and so forth?

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

I am not questioning anything about MAS Charter's operation - it was never an issue in the first place. My understanding of Mushrif's earlier post is that the Charter dedicated B744 aircraft will be used for MH's mainline operation 4 times weekly throughout the entire Northern Summer season:

 

It seems that Charter's 9M-MPQ will be operating the KUL-JED vv 4x wk scheduled services from the Northern Summer schedules. 2-class operations, with biz pax seated in the "F"-cabin.

So for MH to offer only 12 F seats on J fares throughout this whole period is quite unlogical to me since summer is the default peak season for leisure Arab travellers, regardless of

 

'What is the target community here? Wealthy arab families or Medium Wealth Malaysian/Arab families?? Have you got statistics to show that MAS Charter has indeed poorly calculated the market?? Have you got the two-way air services agreement detailing all the nitty-gritty points about sellable seats per week so on and so forth?'.

Regarding the Saudi-Malaysia bilateral agreement, I am in the opinion that the current service is way lower than the max allowed to both MH and SV, otherwise D7 won't be making so much noise about not being given JED and this news is about MH offering more seats after all - so there should not be any issues with 'the two-way air services agreement detailing all the nitty-gritty points about sellable seats per week so on and so forth' unless the agreement suddenly states that MH should reduce its sellable J seats to only 48 seats per week.

[BC Tam 2]

It will be interesting to know Captain Nik's take on this

-MPQ is/was after all 'his' reconfigured tool to handle the specific demands of his trade

Now it would seem this will now not be readily available during the period she is slotted in for the JED runs

But then I suppose not all charter missions require capacity of a jumbo

[Mushrif A 3]

suddenly states that MH should reduce its sellable J seats to only 48 seats per week.

 

Not quite true. 2x to be operated by 772s. 4 x 744s.

 

So, all in all, a relatively big jump in Y capacity but some decline in J capacity.

 

And on your argument that EK operates the F cabin DXB-JED; if indeed there is a big F market between KSA and Msia, EK would have operated three-class aircraft for DXB-KUL vv. But the bulk are operated by 2-class aircraft.

 

Generally speaking, from what I have seen (& no, I dont have statistics to back this up), the bigger F market is out of RUH, not JED.

[N Azman 0]

Sandeep G is asking all the right questions.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli 2]

Not quite true. 2x to be operated by 772s. 4 x 744s.

 

So, all in all, a relatively big jump in Y capacity but some decline in J capacity.

 

And on your argument that EK operates the F cabin DXB-JED; if indeed there is a big F market between KSA and Msia, EK would have operated three-class aircraft for DXB-KUL vv. But the bulk are operated by 2-class aircraft.

 

Generally speaking, from what I have seen (& no, I dont have statistics to back this up), the bigger F market is out of RUH, not JED.

Regarding the Saudi-Malaysia bilateral agreement, I am in the opinion that the current service is way lower than the max allowed to both MH and SV, otherwise D7 won't be making so much noise about not being given JED and this news is about MH offering more seats after all - so there should not be any issues with 'the two-way air services agreement detailing all the nitty-gritty points about sellable seats per week so on and so forth' unless the agreement suddenly states that MH should reduce its sellable J seats to only 48 seats per week.

Ok I'll rephrase the statement:

 

Regarding the Saudi-Malaysia bilateral agreement, I am in the opinion that the current service is way lower than the max allowed to both MH and SV, otherwise D7 won't be making so much noise about not being given JED and this news is about MH offering more seats after all - so there should not be any issues with 'the two-way air services agreement detailing all the nitty-gritty points about sellable seats per week so on and so forth' unless the agreement suddenly states that MH should reduce its sellable J seats by 116 (41 x 4 - 48) seats per week. Happy?

 

My comment about the EK F is just to establish the premise that there is F demand out of JED for EK, MH and any other airlines, and for MH, it is not restricted for F demand on the JED-KUL route alone, but points beyond KUL (to East Asia and Australia) from JED.

 

RUH is the market that MH pulled out of a sudden for no apparent reason even before starting it. The news to upgauge JED from mostly 4 weekly B772 service to 6 weekly B744 was also made on the same day.

[haansel 0]

Based on what i have read,i believe that what some are trying to say is,wont it be much more profitable to sell real gcc seats rather then using fc seats.i mean if Mh is looking for more pax it might have a better chance of more then 12 seats then just 12.Not to mention Mh could use these aircraft to destinations where fc is most of the time zero.So mh makes money both sides and not really leaving the aircraft dormant if not in service for a certain period of time. Furthermore if at all mh is not really interested in fc or gcc service on this particular route (for religious reasons) it would be more logical to make it all ey. I am not known on what did mh agreed with the Saudi government regarding the seats on a weeks basis, so i could be wrong here.If at all Mh is looking to only take up rich middle eastern i believe that mh would have just maintained their current configuration, but form what i see its a combination of both to pick up pax from around SEA. What i wrote here is just based on different views and nothing more.

 

Haansel

 

FYI for those whom dont know.

gcc=Biz Class

Edited March 23, 2011 by haansel

[Mushrif A 3]

And in reality, MH's F is not that great a product anyway. So there isn't much dilution to talk about anyway.

[Johan Z 0]

My understanding is this aircraft is meant for Hajj and Umrah (or maybe students) to JED. That's why MH put many Y seats on it.