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Mohd Suhaimi Fariz

MAS Privatisation

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37 minutes ago, KK Lee said:

mh or kul couldn't add much value to qr network, doubt Akbar Al Baker would even consider.

 

For QR, not much. But for IAG, I think yes, especially if you can get QF to move to KUL from SIN.

KUL becomes OW hub while MH serves regional destinations for IAG.

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40 minutes ago, jani said:

For QR, not much. But for IAG, I think yes, especially if you can get QF to move to KUL from SIN.

KUL becomes OW hub while MH serves regional destinations for IAG.

That would be a big IF.

I don't think QF will even consider moving to KUL from SIN. SIN is very important hub for them and they have a massive lounge there. SIN was among the first oversea station to receive A380 since its re-entry into service. Pre-pandemic, SIN is like literally QF's scissor hub with multiple 747-400, A380 and A330 on ground at any time. Singapore and Australia government have much better cordial relationship and robust business activities, compared to Malaysia. Considering how young and mobile Malaysians' visa being rejected or delay in issuing one, I won't hold my breath QF will move to KUL. 

At most I can see, QF will establish a hub in Hong Kong, but after the bad blood few years ago between CX and QF and China tightening its grip on Hong Kong, SIN remains as important as it is.

Edited by JuliusWong

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Can anyone name a OW carrier that operates more flights into KUL than SIN (QR maybe the only exception) even though KUL is a OW hub and SIN is a Star hub. SIN has strong inbound and outbound demand. Even if the government sells 100% of MH to IAG/QF, they wouldn't move their hub to KUL.

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Really hope that MH will stick with DOH flight even after QR sort out their aircraft shortage... With the upcoming World cup in Qatar this will help to feed their DOH flight, the timing for second flight seems to be good for this. 

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Can Heathrow just willy-nilly ask airlines to re-schedule their flights? I know EK pretty much showed LHR the middle finger when LHR asked them to cancel flights, but asking airlines to re-schedule their departure 3.5 earlier to meet the passenger capacity cap is nuts! Does it makes a difference whether an airline is departing at 22:00 or 18:30 since the arbitrarily fixed cap is 100k pax? God forbid someone is connecting at LHR or has appointments in London before their flight.

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image.png

 

Good job to members here (Jahur was it?) that leaked this info. Keep them coming.

Am a bit mixed about it. It surely is more cost efficient for them and almost everyone has their own device now. Wonder if the new seats will feature something to keep your device in place? A holder of some sort.

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1 hour ago, jani said:

image.png

 

Good job to members here (Jahur was it?) that leaked this info. Keep them coming.

Am a bit mixed about it. It surely is more cost efficient for them and almost everyone has their own device now. Wonder if the new seats will feature something to keep your device in place? A holder of some sort.

Believe i saw the images there is something to hold your tablet but not sure if it is adjustable to smartphone size. Now they just need to make sure the personal 3pin power port is reliable and working on all seats. Wifi intranet streaming on the other hand should be reliable based on SQ's data on their 737s.

It is also somewhat confirmed 1-2 of firefly's existing 737 would also undergo this seat refitting very soon but still no info if MH studio intranet would be installed.

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9M-MXV is the first to be installed with all new cabin head to tail, currently undergoing fitting with few other frames. IFE will now be WiFi streaming just like SQ. Trialed and tested to be as good as SQ. Moving forward, short haul fleet will be getting their IFE removed, mid to long haul will still be getting their IFE.

@jahur, all three FY B738 are now flying daily, no down time, maybe new additions are getting the treatment now? 9M-FFF, 9M-MLI, 9M-MLJ, 9M-MLK, 9M-MLL?

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53 minutes ago, JuliusWong said:

 

@jahur, all three FY B738 are now flying daily, no down time, maybe new additions are getting the treatment now? 9M-FFF, 9M-MLI, 9M-MLJ, 9M-MLK, 9M-MLL?

Approx 2 more due next month or so apparently. Also rumored either one of MLF/MLG/MLH will be sent to KLIA for refitting once the 2 aircraft arrives. I am not sure which mab aircraft will come in but its definitely not FFF 🤣. I have no idea what sort of lease deal FFF has but it seems quite possible it might be a long stayer in mab. Only can confirm MX and MS series wont be going to Firefly. 

Am still cautious with how firefly is mounting flights. 1 aircraft going tech it will disrupt 40% of their schedule easily. Even with 2 new aircrafts joining  the amount of destination they're doing allows this kind of potential disruption plus without any spare aircraft available. I don't think they can pull in any mh aircraft over for rescue quite similar to how airasia cant pull in airasia x equipment last minute. It will probably take days to organize such a thing and it will be charter basis.

Edited by jahur

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Looks like MH just released their new refreshed 738 seat map. Configuration changed from 16J/144Y to 12J/162Y. They took out 1 row of J to fit in 3 rows of Y (plus slimmer seats) and J seat pitch went from 42" to 39" 😓

Edited by Craig

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24 minutes ago, Craig said:

Looks like MH just released their new refreshed 738 seat map. Configuration changed from 16J/144Y to 12J/162Y. They took out 1 row of J to fit in 3 rows of Y (plus slimmer seats) and J seat pitch went from 42" to 39" 😓

Looks like the sardine express now. I avoided flying on MH because of their cramped LCC like seats - so I am not likely to return to flying with them. It looks like their policy now is to have the bread and butter B738 services like the LCCs and the more premium routes will get A330s.

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3 hours ago, flee said:

Looks like the sardine express now. I avoided flying on MH because of their cramped LCC like seats - so I am not likely to return to flying with them. It looks like their policy now is to have the bread and butter B738 services like the LCCs and the more premium routes will get A330s.

You have not much option left except batik Malaysia which has the best seats. But they do not plan on taking over most of the inter routes. But again how many here can afford to pay usd 50 per hour economy class tickets by volume. 

Mh seems to have join the list of the same scam that the gen Zs and 5 star hotels have been barking with much love. "GO GREEN GO SUSTAINABLE" but are actually a nuisance in reliability and usage to actual consumers.

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1 hour ago, jahur said:

You have not much option left except batik Malaysia which has the best seats. But they do not plan on taking over most of the inter routes. But again how many here can afford to pay usd 50 per hour economy class tickets by volume. 

Mh seems to have join the list of the same scam that the gen Zs and 5 star hotels have been barking with much love. "GO GREEN GO SUSTAINABLE" but are actually a nuisance in reliability and usage to actual consumers.

To be fair to MH, they are competing in a highly price sensitive market - so it is understandable that they make themselves relevant in these markets. Right now, they are moving towards offering an LCC product. It is up to the customers to decide if their product is worth the premium over LCCs.

Batik can now boast that they have the Max - it will be a marketing advantage. We shall have to wait and see what happens when the market has fully recovered from the pandemic.

The sad thing about business is that most managements are so focussed on margins and bottom lines that they don't pay as much attention to product quality and service excellence. It is not just standards in airlines have declined, integrity also seems to have been thrown out of the window. Look at how US and EU airlines are selling tickets for flights they don't intend to fly in order to improve their cash flow. I am sure that this will come back to haunt them in future.

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https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/experience/fleet/b737-800/b737-800-ng.html

The new seats are made from lightweight material and are leaner than before with the transition of seatback in-flight entertainment to entertainment on your terms, in your hand. Lighter materials are also used throughout the cabin, including changing our cabin dividers from hard partitions to soft dividers. 

Overall, the aircraft weight has now been reduced by approximately 679 kilograms, effectively reducing fuel consumption by about 91,029 litres per aircraft per annum. Basically, the lighter the plane, the less fuel is used for each flight, and ultimately, the smaller our carbon footprint on the planet. Each flight taken on the refreshed B737-800 NG will be more sustainable!

Yea so many green turtles and orang utans did MH,Lufthansa, SQ, Marriott, HYATT, HILTON and the long list of others have saved from running this "SUSTAINABLE ECO FRIENDLY LOW CARBON EMMISSION" scam in expense of actual consumers. The funny thing is, i am seeing a lot of young people from west really gulping on stuff like this.

Edited by jahur

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2 hours ago, jahur said:

https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/my/en/experience/fleet/b737-800/b737-800-ng.html

The new seats are made from lightweight material and are leaner than before with the transition of seatback in-flight entertainment to entertainment on your terms, in your hand. Lighter materials are also used throughout the cabin, including changing our cabin dividers from hard partitions to soft dividers. 

Overall, the aircraft weight has now been reduced by approximately 679 kilograms, effectively reducing fuel consumption by about 91,029 litres per aircraft per annum. Basically, the lighter the plane, the less fuel is used for each flight, and ultimately, the smaller our carbon footprint on the planet. Each flight taken on the refreshed B737-800 NG will be more sustainable!

Yea so many green turtles and orang utans did MH,Lufthansa, SQ, Marriott, HYATT, HILTON and the long list of others have saved from running this "SUSTAINABLE ECO FRIENDLY LOW CARBON EMMISSION" scam in expense of actual consumers. The funny thing is, i am seeing a lot of young people from west really gulping on stuff like this.

The activists are targeting aviation because of the optics - aviation only contributes 2.5% of global carbon emissions. Heavy industries are more harmful and they don't get targeted as much because they have powerful politicians defending them.

However, every little bit counts and aviation can also see cost savings when pursuing the sustainable route. MH could have done more had they switched to the Max. The B738 is dirtier and they should get rid of the A330Ceo as soon as possible - they can save a lot of carbon emissions and money burning less fuel. 

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12 hours ago, flee said:

To be fair to MH, they are competing in a highly price sensitive market - so it is understandable that they make themselves relevant in these markets. Right now, they are moving towards offering an LCC product. It is up to the customers to decide if their product is worth the premium over LCCs.

It's fine if these 738s are captive to short and super-price sensitive routes. Nobody needs IFE or reclining seats on a KUL-TGG hop. But for markets like HKG, DEL, PER, etc, they're making themselves irrelevant by having such an embarrassing product. It's a vicious cycle - the more of these ridiculous cuts they make, the less people are inclined to pay a premium. Of course their yields are going to suffer. 

12 hours ago, flee said:

Look at how US and EU airlines are selling tickets for flights they don't intend to fly in order to improve their cash flow. I am sure that this will come back to haunt them in future.

Which carriers are you referring to? I haven't encountered any airlines that are nearly as bad in that regard as MH/AK. US airlines are more or less back to pre-Covid levels for North America. It's a similar story with EU airlines (and LX/BA). Their recent cuts are out of operational necessity than deception.

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3 hours ago, Chris Tan said:

It's fine if these 738s are captive to short and super-price sensitive routes. Nobody needs IFE or reclining seats on a KUL-TGG hop. But for markets like HKG, DEL, PER, etc, they're making themselves irrelevant by having such an embarrassing product. It's a vicious cycle - the more of these ridiculous cuts they make, the less people are inclined to pay a premium. Of course their yields are going to suffer.

So far overhead that the refitted 737-800s wont be flying beyond Asean. Anything above the 3-4hour mark would he assigned to the 737-8. The thing is from what i know the 737-8 may also be using the same seat brand model lol so not sure whats the difference.

Checking on most asian carrier configuration on the narrowbody. It seems IFE removal and slimline seats would be the new norm and so far only SQ and Starlux are interested in retaining IFE's. Korean Air will be opting to remove theirs on the 737-800 soon as well. Asiana already using the same seat concept as MH for the a321neo. Vietnam Airlines will be keeping few A321neo with proper headrest and IFEs. Philippine airlines opting IFEs on the 321 but not on the 320. Carriers in japan are doing 2-3 different configurations on their narrowbody suited for destinations. Perhaps now its better for MH to actually start to double think what to do with the upcoming 737-8. It doesnt hurt to have a proper regional cabin with ife+headrest and an alternate lccish config for domestic and asean.

Edited by jahur

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1 hour ago, jahur said:

So far overhead that the refitted 737-800s wont be flying beyond Asean. Anything above the 3-4hour mark would he assigned to the 737-8. The thing is from what i know the 737-8 may also be using the same seat brand model lol so not sure whats the difference.

I have lost track of this but when are the 737-8s (Max) arriving? Because the current 737-800 are flying to places like PER, DEL, BOM plus BKI-NRT (those are all 4+ hours flight). The plan for flatbed seats on the 737-8s are still not happening (even though they plan to use this for India/China/Australia flights)? Most of these flights are either long daylight flights or a redeye on one of the legs. Safran makes some pretty decent looking flat bed J narrow body seats 😬

Btw, someone posted a video of it on social media, and it seems like these seats do recline (they were in Y). The J seats looked like those hard-shell seats where it's a "slide-down" seat.

These seats look OK for < 2 hours flight. I don't need IFE for flights to BKK, CGK, SGN, BKI etc. but I'll shop around more for flights to PER, HAN, HKG, MNL etc. And god forbid they have the same seats/pitch in Y/J and they fly the 737-8 (MAX) to secondary cities in JP/KR like Hiroshima/Pusan.

Speaking of new planes, Farnborough is coming to an end but MH didn't announce any orders? Is MH under the government's new austerity measures as well?

18 hours ago, jahur said:

Yea so many green turtles and orang utans did MH,Lufthansa, SQ, Marriott, HYATT, HILTON and the long list of others have saved from running this "SUSTAINABLE ECO FRIENDLY LOW CARBON EMMISSION" scam in expense of actual consumers. The funny thing is, i am seeing a lot of young people from west really gulping on stuff like this.

It's a more palatable "enhancement" rather than saying we are squeezing in more seats. If they want to be more green, they could have remove another row of Y to reduce more weight as well, or better yet, remove another 2-3 rows 🤣. At least we haven't gone the way of Euro J/Y cabin yet where they take out the ovens or move the toilets to where the galley is and any person of size will have problems entering/exiting the rear lavatories. 

Something I agree with hotels is the discontinuation of small plastic bottles for your shampoo etc. especially in lower tier hotels (it's not like their shampoo are great to take home with). But don't cut things like housekeeping or turndown service "due to covid yada yada for your safety" etc.

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1 hour ago, Craig said:

I have lost track of this but when are the 737-8s (Max) arriving? Because the current 737-800 are flying to places like PER, DEL, BOM plus BKI-NRT (those are all 4+ hours flight). The plan for flatbed seats on the 737-8s are still not happening (even though they plan to use this for India/China/Australia flights)? Most of these flights are either long daylight flights or a redeye on one of the legs. Safran makes some pretty decent looking flat bed J narrow body seats 😬

Btw, someone posted a video of it on social media, and it seems like these seats do recline (they were in Y). The J seats looked like those hard-shell seats where it's a "slide-down" seat.

These seats look OK for < 2 hours flight. I don't need IFE for flights to BKK, CGK, SGN, BKI etc. but I'll shop around more for flights to PER, HAN, HKG, MNL etc. And god forbid they have the same seats/pitch in Y/J and they fly the 737-8 (MAX) to secondary cities in JP/KR like Hiroshima/Pusan.

Speaking of new planes, Farnborough is coming to an end but MH didn't announce any orders? Is MH under the government's new austerity measures as well?

It's a more palatable "enhancement" rather than saying we are squeezing in more seats. If they want to be more green, they could have remove another row of Y to reduce more weight as well, or better yet, remove another 2-3 rows 🤣. At least we haven't gone the way of Euro J/Y cabin yet where they take out the ovens or move the toilets to where the galley is and any person of size will have problems entering/exiting the rear lavatories. 

Something I agree with hotels is the discontinuation of small plastic bottles for your shampoo etc. especially in lower tier hotels (it's not like their shampoo are great to take home with). But don't cut things like housekeeping or turndown service "due to covid yada yada for your safety" etc.

737-8 are due for q1 2023 and this has been delayed from the planned push forward amendment of q4 2022 due to seat vendor and electronics i believe. I still highly doubt they will come with IFE or headrest. Maybe different seat color and proper internet wifi maybe vs the current offline intranet entertainment only and better Business class pitch.

I am sure MH did check on others to fit itself on some kind of middle ground. High voltage usb c port, slightly wider economy seats over the older seats, normal arm rest vs others who opted t-rex length arm rest. But the omission of the inflight screen and slimline cushioning will definitely deter others but again sadly this is the new norm for narrowbody air travel that other asian carriers are also gradually switching to except for the select few remaining.

330 replacement has been categorize as soontm. If they didnt announce anything  publicly by end of July it means they missed the timeline.

I have already heard of resort downgrade since 2016 in South Korea and Thailand. Thought it was something rare until i personally come to experience it over and over. Low graded toiletries, some 5 stars have the audacity to ask if you did bring your own shampoo so as for them not to stock theirs in. Poor quality go green towells. It also depends on the hotel chains and the country they operate in. But they all have sole purpose of pushing being as sustainable as much as they can gimmick. I have been called dinosaur by others when i whine about whats going on in the hotel and aviation industry. Though I understand as many of these young people did not experience the golden years of travelling and lodging.

 

Edited by jahur

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1 hour ago, Craig said:

Because the current 737-800 are flying to places like PER, DEL, BOM plus BKI-NRT (those are all 4+ hours flight)

Don't worry about BKI-NRT - it's not happening now and I doubt there is any priority to get that going again anytime soon 😉

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8 hours ago, Chris Tan said:

It's fine if these 738s are captive to short and super-price sensitive routes. Nobody needs IFE or reclining seats on a KUL-TGG hop. But for markets like HKG, DEL, PER, etc, they're making themselves irrelevant by having such an embarrassing product. It's a vicious cycle - the more of these ridiculous cuts they make, the less people are inclined to pay a premium. Of course their yields are going to suffer. 

Which carriers are you referring to? I haven't encountered any airlines that are nearly as bad in that regard as MH/AK. US airlines are more or less back to pre-Covid levels for North America. It's a similar story with EU airlines (and LX/BA). Their recent cuts are out of operational necessity than deception.

I believe those routes that you have mentioned will be upgraded to A330s. MH will only use the LCC aircraft for domestic and intra ASEAN routes. However, one can now see the cabin differences when switching from a long haul flight to a short haul one. So product consistency is thrown out of the window. Airlines don't seem to care about that anymore - e.g. SQs B737s are definitely one step lower that their wide bodies.

Almost all US and European carriers were guilty of that earlier this year but they got warnings from the various authorities and may have toned down their cash raising activities. But we cannot really compare them to AK and MH as they received billions in govt. aid for the Covid disruptions while Malaysian airlines got minimal assistance. They don't have any reserves now and are very aggressive in preserving their cash these days.

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1 hour ago, jahur said:

I am sure MH did check on others to fit itself on some kind of middle ground. High voltage usb c port, slightly wider economy seats over the older seats, normal arm rest vs others who opted t-rex length arm rest. But the omission of the inflight screen and slimline cushioning will definitely deter others but again sadly this is the new norm for narrowbody air travel that other asian carriers are also gradually switching to except for the select few remaining.

I have been called dinosaur by others when i whine about whats going on in the hotel and aviation industry. Though I understand as many of these young people did not experience the golden years of travelling and lodging.

Good to know about the slightly wider seats - do you know if any other airlines chose Safran as their seat other than Starlux so I know if I have sat on their seats before. Starlux's new business seats on the 339 looks good tho (and someone who recently flew BR's 789 told me their J seats are awful). I actually prefer MH's 380 J seats over the 330 J seats (only if the J seats are slightly longer since I am pretty tall).

I don't know of anyone who's calling airline to reduce their seat weight. I think they want to reduce flying but aviation is not the main source of carbon emission. I am sure one day we will all be vegans driving an electric car and sailing across the 7 seas to cut our carbon emission. Young people also did not experience the golden age of airline miles ;) 

1 hour ago, BC Tam said:

Don't worry about BKI-NRT - it's not happening now and I doubt there is any priority to get that going again anytime soon 😉

Well guess this didn't come to fruition then :p I thought I read somewhere that they were going to but it didn't happen.

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