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Resumption of MAS's Previously Axed Routes, Launch of New Routes + Wishlist

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Flight to darwin will be good..

 

There is not a lot competition on that route..

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MAS to re-energise products in Europe next year

 

FLAG carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is not likely to launch any new route to European countries anytime soon but will continue to re-energise its products in Europe next year, according to regional senior vice-president UK/Europe Huib Gorter.

 

“We've got some exciting plans for next year. There will be a lot of buzz coming from MAS. Additionally, we will be flying the A380 for KL-Paris-KL route in March 2013 on top of the current KL-London route,” he tells StarBizWeek in Amsterdam.

 

With the new A380 plying KL-Paris-KL daily route, Gorter expects the new product will attract customers to fly with MAS just like they did in London.

 

MAS has increased its daily A380 flights on the KL-London route to twice daily. It will begin daily A380 operations on the KL-Paris return route from March 1, 2013.

 

Despite the larger capacity on the jumbo jet, Gorter expects KL-Paris route load factor to average about 80%. He adds that the KL-London-KL flights on A380 had been averaging about 80% load factor.

 

In 2003, MAS ordered six A380 but delivery had been delayed for a while. It finally received the first A380 in June. So far, it has received four aircraft and will be receiving the balance next year.

 

The A380 has a capacity of 494 seats in a three-class configuration comprising eight first-class seats and 350 economy-class on the main deck, together with 66 business-class seats and 70 economy-class seats on the upper deck.

 

“One of the key things is to price your products creatively and at the right time. We have very good airlines competing with us and we can never ever lose sight on the ball, we have to be on top of that and I think we have done it quite well,” Gorter says, adding that its business plan for Europe was to develop traffic to home base.

 

Additionally, he says, MAS works with various groups including Tourism Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak Tourism, hoteliers and tour operators.

 

Gorter points out that there is “no lack of capacity” flying from Europe to Malaysia and one of its challenges is to move ahead of the curve.

 

The are sufficient direct flights from Europe to Malaysia (including code sharing) with 17 from Amsterdam, Frankfurt (nine), London (14), Paris (daily) and Istanbul (3), of which 14 of the direct flights are operated by MAS. UK is MAS' biggest market in Europe followed by Paris and Amsterdam.

 

“We have to be very quick and competitive. We need to have strategies and we have estimated about 122 European tour operators will feature Malaysia in their brochures and online sites,” Gorter says.

 

On competition from airlines, he says consumer trends is hard to predict these days because consumer trend changes fast.

 

“One minute they could be looking at travelling to Malaysia and the next it could be other destinations. It is a challenge for everyone. We have to act very quick and price our products well. Its mind-boggling,” Gorter says.

 

As brand loyalty poses another challenge, Gorter says MAS entry into oneworld alliance is timely. MAS will become a full member of oneworld alliance effective Feb 1, 2013.

 

He points out that the industry is experiencing a declining brand loyalty so there is a need for a “constant reinforcement” for the brand.

 

“Enrich (MAS' frequent flyer programme) is great but Enrich itself is not the key driver (for brand loyalty). With oneworld alliance, travellers flying British Airways or member airlines will be able to accrue flying miles,” Gorter says, adding that the new oneworld alliance will allow MAS to enter the corporate market in Europe, which has great potential.

 

Although there is only one MAS' Golden Lounge in London in Europe region, Gorter says there is no plan to set up lounges in other European destinations MAS flies to such as Amsterdam and Paris.

 

“We have third party contract to allow passengers on business and first class to gain access to these lounges. We're not setting up Golden Lounges ... not at this point,” Gorter says.

 

He proudly says MAS' business class product is second to none. “We're a very good airline,” he adds.

 

Last year MAS announced a major route rationalisation to stem losses. The rationalisation takes effect early this year and involves the withdrawal of loss-making flights from Kuala Lumpur to cities that include Surabaya, Karachi, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Rome and Buenos Aires.

 

Gorter describes the KL-Rome route cut as a very “painful” exercise as a need to achieve its revenue target and stem losses from low-yield route. “We made the decision to drop non-strategic routes and Rome was one of it. Life is tough,” he reckons.

 

Gorter says MAS is “a lot better” now. “We have started to get profitable on some routes.”

 

Despite the uncertainty in the eurozone economic outlook, Gorter sees next year as an excellent one for MAS in Europe as the A380 aircraft will definitely enhance MAS' brandname.

 

“The uncertainty makes it even more challenging in an industry which is so competitive. There are still a lot of travel between Europe and Asia despite the potential slowdown in economy,” he says.

 

Source: http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/12/22/business/12493060&sec=business

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Those B772s will continue to fly to AMS and FRA for a few years to come, so if they want to "re-energise" their product to Europe, those B772s should be re-furbished so that the hard product will be consistent with what's on the A380 right now.

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MH should come back to Zurich. Since MH pulled out, SQ upgraded first to double daily 77W and then daily A380, Emirates double daily, qatar daily, Swiss will launch daily to SIN next May, etc. etc. There is a lot of traffic going towards Asia/Australia from Zurich....

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MH should come back to Zurich. Since MH pulled out, SQ upgraded first to double daily 77W and then daily A380, Emirates double daily, qatar daily, Swiss will launch daily to SIN next May, etc. etc. There is a lot of traffic going towards Asia/Australia from Zurich....

But how much would be interested in going to KL?

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KUL might not be their final destination. However, it will give options to pax to choose the availability of flights and product. It offers good connectivity to SEA, Australasia destinations and HKG as no other OW member flies to Zurich from this region.

 

 

 

:hi:

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Hence i sort of placed my cities in a possible viability means...

 

MH really needs to expand regionally to build its hub at KUL - agreed.

 

I placed Moscow and Rome in that order as there should be a vast potential to fill several 777s out of Domodedovo each week.

Rome on the other hand was pulled due to poor yields i gather but with good traffic both ex-Italy and ex-Aust/NZ - so i postulate better fare basis management could see a potential for return.

 

I see great potential for MH to codeshare with QR opening other European routes however as the article above states.

 

I am however most intrigued to see if MH and BA-IB manage to work out a viable codeshare in the meantime.

BA and MH have always been 'natural partners' given the cultural, historical and trade links - heck i even remember the days when MAS pilots flew with BA as part of a training agreement... It should be time to bury the hachet on any previous misunderstandings from the 70s and 80s and save BOTH carriers by working together!

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Would be nice to see if MH could upgrade its product first at least at par with ME carriers. With current open sky agreement especially with UAE, it would be more competetive if MAS were to re-introduce KUL-DXB-East Coast NAM vv or even to north and eastern Europe.

 

However, with current product (especially on B772ER), I doubt if anyone will even consider to fly MH, let alone to compete in ME league.

 

 

:hi:

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Zurich for sure! I agree 100%. There is a Market and MH screwed up. Moscow certainly is a possibility and one in scandinavia - Stockholm or helsinki.

 

I think ASEAN destinations should be at least 3 flights daily to allow better connectivity and more premium transfer pax from OW

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His will fly to FRA and his flight itinerary includes 1 hour ride on ICE train from FRA to Zurich.

I am pretty sure he can't get to Zurich within an hour even on the nonstop ICE from FRA. It should take 3-4 hours.

Edited by Craig

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MH need to provide daily on intercontinental and multiple daily on regional to attract high yield pax. Given MH current 772 and 738 are over capacity on some of these routes, until MH take delivery of smaller aircraft like 332, 787 and CRJ/ERJ, MH is not ready to take advantage of OW.

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My take will be MAD,BER and HEL for europe(and codeshare with the oneworld partner) and yes Moscow as well. There are more Russian coming to these part of the world thesedays.

Not to forget multiple connection flight and venture to secondary/tertiary cities in ASEAN, more China and Indian cities as well.

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Unfortunately Berlin is low yield. If MH couldn't make FCO and ZRH work, BER is definitely out. They need to make FRA at least daily. It is a big financial hub and tourist spot.

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Unfortunately Berlin is low yield. If MH couldn't make FCO and ZRH work, BER is definitely out. They need to make FRA at least daily. It is a big financial hub and tourist spot.

Agree fully that MH needs to make FRA a daily service. QF are dropping out of FRA and there are many QF passengers who are looking for one-stop alternatives to EK to get to FRA on the OW alliance.

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Unfortunately Berlin is low yield. If MH couldn't make FCO and ZRH work, BER is definitely out. They need to make FRA at least daily. It is a big financial hub and tourist spot.

Berlin is the hotspot for tourism in Germany right now, you can see alot of asian ppls flocking berlin nowadays. FRA is a financial hub but no way a tourist hotspot. Not much things to visit. FRA disadvantage is the curfew and besides everyone fly to FRA.

 

If MH fly to BER, they shld take advantage and codeshare with AB for cities like Munich/ Hamburg/ dusseldorf etc. and even maybe to cities in russia.

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Interesting.. they are indeed have plan to increase on KUL to London. Is it LHR or maybe Gatwick next??

 

 

"We will also be increasing travel frequencies within the Asean region such as Jakarta and Bangkok as well as in Europe such as the popular Kuala Lumpur-London route,"

 

Read more: http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/ASTIK/Article/index_html

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Yeah. That quote came from the guy who said that MAS A380 has more than a thousand seats.

I don't think they r increasing frequencies - they have increased the capacity by adding another A380 flight making it twice daily. Too soon to increase frequencies IMHO

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MH don't need to go to BER to connect with AirBerlin.. Connect via MUC where there is also industrial and tourist traffic. FCO pullout was a mistake - they should have tagged on the flight from IST to continue to FCO... The schedules were pretty much identical, and you boost aircraft utilisation rather than having 2 777s sit idle at bth airports all day.. Transit rights I'm sure wouldn't be an issue in IST and crews would operate a turnaround shuttle IST-FCO-IST.

Edited by Sandeep G

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Similar to CPT-EZE (and a few other routes), I wonder if the use of 747 actually made MH bleeding a lot. They should try dowgrading to 777 first and if they ordered 787, they can use for this route when it becomes available. It used to be one of the quickest ways from SE Asia to South America. Now, SQ seems to monopolise SE Asia --> S America route and they seem to be doing well.

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