MAS Privatisation

[Robert 0]

30 minutes ago, Craig said:

To be fair, I used it very recently and the speed was decent (before it was open to all). Much faster than say TK which is unusable most of the time because it's so slow. MH wasn't strict with the 100 Mbps limit back then. You could always get new vouchers from the crew.

I think you mean MH 140/141? MH 122/123 is redeye ex-KUL and daytime ex-SYD. From the look of it, it appeared as tho it's tech out of KUL on MH140. MH should know better not to delay this flight too much as SYD has a curfew and they'd have to cancel or delay the flight until the curfew has passed. MTN was sitting on the ground for the whole night on the 30th. If they really have to delay a flight, most likely it's one of those morning greater China flights that will be delayed rather than SYD/MEL/AKL. SYD will be the worst option due to curfew.

MH715 was delayed by over 7 hours once or twice in October, sometimes waiting for MH161 from DOH. And today's MH 715 is already delayed by 1.75 hours. Maybe they are waiting for pax/aircraft on MH 195 from BOM which is running about 2 hours late.

Yes.

yes it was MH140/141. sorry was awake late and made a typo error. 
9M-MTN is now in Seoul after departing almost 2.5 hours late.

Last night 9M-MTA on MH 52 was delayed from 22:40 to 01:25 for some reason. 

The Auckland flights are almost always late so they should just change the departure time to something realistic. 

 

[Craig 0]

10 minutes ago, Robert said:

The Auckland flights are almost always late so they should just change the departure time to something realistic. 

AKL/PER (MH126/127) are hopeless. MH126 already departs around 2AM-ish. And sometimes it's delayed till 4-5AM thereby throwing away all the morning connections from KUL. They really need to pad their schedule more if their flight keeps delaying. What's the point of scheduling flights when most of their PER/AKL flights are delayed and ground staff are left with the burden to rebook passengers with missed connections or deal with frustrated delayed passengers. Looking at their schedule, 1:15 is very optimistic to turn around a plane. Even at best at KUL, they probably need around 1:30 to turn around a 330.

[jahur 0]

In the old days almost every airlines around the world would have about 5-10% of each aircraft type fleet on standby on the ground not including those undergoing scheduled maintenance.
One broken a340-300, easy sends replacement aircraft with crew within 2-3hours.

Nowadays with changing travel pattern, everyone is using their aircrafts at near max utilisation rates. Broken aircraft no backup, sends automated re-timing notices that may persist beyond 3hours to avoid dispersing any forms of compensation with domino effect at risk on other subsequent flight plus crew bursting their available duty hours. Even the margins at gulfs carriers are narrowing.

[jahur 0]

MAG expects first A330-900neo to arrive in September next year

Group managing director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail said MAG has options on the table for the remaining 20 and will make that decision in the first quarter of 2024.

"If we follow or remain steadfast with our long-term business plan until 2030, we should have at least 55 widebody aircraft by 2028," he said during the Airline Leader Interview - MAG session held at the Centre for Aviation (Capa) Asia Aviation Summit and Sustainability Awards 2023 here today.

 

55 widebody seems a bit too far-fetched. But we'll see. The old plan was for them to have 33 widebody to facilitate very mild expansion. Currently the fleet stands at 21 a330ceos to be replaced by 20 a330neo with optional slot of 20 more. The a350 fleet of 6 will be gradually increased to 10.

What is more likely to happen is them executing 3 a330neo on top of the 20 units to enable the 33 widebody total.

[Craig 0]

Quite a few news out with MH from Captain Izham's speech at CAPA meeting in KL earlier today.

MAG is on track for a full year net profit for 2023

Quote

MAG is betting on most part of Asia, India, Australia and Europe to drive its growth, going forward. The group currently flies 60 times a week to India and will be launching routes to Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Trivandrum next week.

"Passenger traffic coming out from China has been disappointing. Unemployment rate there has increased and that's probably causing the lack of movement of its travellers out of the country," he says.

Europe? Interesting. I am curious if they plan to return to Europe next summer (if they do, now it's the time to announce it because most airlines are already announcing their major intercontinental additions expansion now). China is not a surprise. Despite what they announced, they can't even keep PKX, CAN and PVG daily (second daily MH386/387 barely flew). 

MAG will issue RFP for new narrowbody in Q1 2024

Quote

“We have the remaining order for our fleet growth programme up to 2030. We are looking at a size of about 60 narrowbody aircraft by then,” Izham said.

“I am very disappointed with the delivery progress of our 737 MAX 8 aircraft. Contractually, we were supposed to receive seven of the aircraft this year, but the revised contract would see four. But as we speak, I honestly don’t know when the aircraft are coming. It has been delayed for the last 2½ months,” he said.

I am curious if it will include some A220s or Embraer E2 for SZB ops. Or maybe A220/E2 for KUL's thin regional routes.

17 minutes ago, jahur said:

MAG expects first A330-900neo to arrive in September next year

Group managing director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail said MAG has options on the table for the remaining 20 and will make that decision in the first quarter of 2024.

"If we follow or remain steadfast with our long-term business plan until 2030, we should have at least 55 widebody aircraft by 2028," he said during the Airline Leader Interview - MAG session held at the Centre for Aviation (Capa) Asia Aviation Summit and Sustainability Awards 2023 here today.

 

55 widebody seems a bit too far-fetched. But we'll see. The old plan was for them to have 33 widebody to facilitate very mild expansion. Currently the fleet stands at 21 a330ceos to be replaced by 20 a330neo with optional slot of 20 more. The a350 fleet of 6 will be gradually increased to 10.

What is more likely to happen is them executing 3 a330neo on top of the 20 units to enable the 33 widebody total.

There might have been a lost in translation somewhere. The Edge article quoted "at least 35 wide body" by 2028. Interesting that no mention of the rumored 9M-MAH ex-SK 359 was made. Interestingly enough, MH's MEL flights is zeroed out in F but seat map still remains as MH 359.

I assume some of those 359s will be used for Europe expansion since the 339s can do East Asia, ME, and ANZ? There isn't a huge capacity difference between 359 and 339 and hopefully, they will share the same cabin.

4 hours ago, jahur said:

In the old days almost every airlines around the world would have about 5-10% of each aircraft type fleet on standby on the ground not including those undergoing scheduled maintenance.
One broken a340-300, easy sends replacement aircraft with crew within 2-3hours.
Nowadays with changing travel pattern, everyone is using their aircrafts at near max utilisation rates.

I understand that most carriers are using their aircraft at near max utilization rate, but perhaps they can pad their schedule more for certain routes e.g. AKL, PER, CAN. Those flights are consistently delayed and it's an unfair burden for the ground crew to deal with this. Maybe increase their turnaround time to 1:30 or schedule a "longer" flight. The knockoff effect is of course they might miss minimum connecting time at KUL/outstation if they do that and can't sell that connection.

An early arrival is always appreciated (and on a separate note, MH flight crew need to be a bit more specific when giving inflight announcement). I was on MH recently and we were landing about 20 minutes early (yay!!) but the captain will always say "we are landing on schedule at 8:00". How about changing it to "subject to ATC delays, we are expected to arrive 20 minutes ahead of schedule and at the gate a few minutes after". 

Another beef/pet's peeve with MH. Don't make the boarding time on the boarding pass an hour before departure but instead show the exact boarding time. No one knows when boarding will commence with MH that way. It can't be boarding 60 mins prior to departure for a flight to PEN (and on another note, please reduce the check in cutoff time for domestic from 60 to 45 minutes, or even better down to 30!).

Edited November 2, 2023 by Craig

[Craig 0]

It appears that MH has "reintroduced" MH Saver awards. Didn't look like they changed anything other than adding destinations like TRV, COK, ATQ, AMD to the list but not DOH. Chinese destinations like FOC, CKG, NKG, and more recently XMN are all still in there. Intern must have not got the memo on the Chinese cities.

[jahur 0]

1 hour ago, Craig said:

Europe? Interesting. I am curious if they plan to return to Europe next summer (if they do, now it's the time to announce it because most airlines are already announcing their major intercontinental additions expansion now). China is not a surprise. Despite what they announced, they can't even keep PKX, CAN and PVG daily (second daily MH386/387 barely flew).

I assume some of those 359s will be used for Europe expansion since the 339s can do East Asia, ME, and ANZ? There isn't a huge capacity difference between 359 and 339 and hopefully, they will share the same cabin.

Honestly, MAB should be careful when it comes to Europe market. Msia's poor Tourism attraction and geopolitics aside, India and Saudi have begun to pump in money to push VistaraXAir india and Riyadh Air to go after the gulfs respectively. It may not be much stuff for MH to pick on later. At most LHR, AMS and Turkiye routes should only be the thing they are focusing on.

The main advantage of the A359 is the extra take off weight limit coupled with more usable commercial payload it can carry. Flights to europe the wind condition on certain seasons could hinder the range capability a lot sometimes needing few extra tonnes of fuel than usual. That was the issue when MH had to send their b772 to LHR long ago when a lot of the 744 got AOG with a batch passengers bag and commercial parcel offloaded to next available flight. Technically 9-10 a350s is enough. Nothing more. A339 is much more suited for flights less than 12hours anything more would have to be the a350.

[Craig 0]

52 minutes ago, jahur said:

Honestly, MAB should be careful when it comes to Europe market. Msia's poor Tourism attraction and geopolitics aside, India and Saudi have begun to pump in money to push VistaraXAir india and Riyadh Air to go after the gulfs respectively. It may not be much stuff for MH to pick on later. At most LHR, AMS and Turkiye routes should only be the thing they are focusing on.

The main advantage of the A359 is the extra take off weight limit coupled with more usable commercial payload it can carry. Flights to europe the wind condition on certain seasons could hinder the range capability a lot sometimes needing few extra tonnes of fuel than usual. That was the issue when MH had to send their b772 to LHR long ago when a lot of the 744 got AOG with a batch passengers bag and commercial parcel offloaded to next available flight. Technically 9-10 a350s is enough. Nothing more. A339 is much more suited for flights less than 12hours anything more would have to be the a350.

Looking at next summer schedule, we have WY increasing from 8x to 14x weekly, EY from 7x to 14x, and a good chance that QR will continue its 14x into summer. TK is already 14x. I guess there must be quite a bit of EU-MY demand with that much increase for next summer. Either that or there'll be an oversupply and MH (and KUL with EU carriers) will probably lose out again. KU already waved their white flag at KUL.

Will the 339 work comfortably year round to AKL or perhaps (seasonal) CHC?

Edited November 2, 2023 by Craig

[jahur 0]

7 minutes ago, Craig said:

Will the 339 work comfortably year round to AKL or perhaps (seasonal) CHC?

Same thing with the a350 vs b772. For AKL the A339 over the A332 is advantage of payload mass plus as expected better comfort on the seats. Technically the a350 is not that suited for AKL under MH current yield management the a339 or 789 would be more suited due to lower fuel burn. 

When MH sent the a333 to akl they had to block 20 plus seats and no parcels on board. When they took the 6 air berlin a332 those planes could carry nearly 4tonnes more payload plus the aircrafts empty weight is lighter by nearly 6 tonnes than the a333 plus an additional fuel tank equipped. The a332 essentially can carry the same amount of passengers as the a333(amid tighter seats) and carry more fuel without hitting the max take off weight limit for the akl fllights.

[Craig 0]

With AMS’ “green cap” in the news today, I am curious if MH can even get slots at AMS if they wanted to resume AMS.

Airlines with historical slots will receive 3.1% slots less for Summer 24 whilst airlines without historical slots will not receive slots at all. Is MH considered an airline with historical slot?

Maybe it’s time for MH to fly back into CDG, FRA and the likes to preserve slots for future. I’ve read somewhere that ICN is getting close to full as well. And HND (either MH cant make it work or they don’t have a slot).  

AMS is sort of unprecedented as they are basically barring any new entrants to AMS.  

[Chris Tan 0]

39 minutes ago, Craig said:

With AMS’ “green cap” in the news today, I am curious if MH can even get slots at AMS if they wanted to resume AMS.

Airlines with historical slots will receive 3.1% slots less for Summer 24 whilst airlines without historical slots will not receive slots at all. Is MH considered an airline with historical slot?

Maybe it’s time for MH to fly back into CDG, FRA and the likes to preserve slots for future. I’ve read somewhere that ICN is getting close to full as well. And HND (either MH cant make it work or they don’t have a slot).  

AMS is sort of unprecedented as they are basically barring any new entrants to AMS.  

I don't know about AMS slots, but I can definitely see the merits of resuming CDG. It's really a big gap in KUL's connectivity, and since AF is showing no interest in returning (BKK and SIN are working very well for them), MH has the upper hand here.

MH will get less connecting traffic in FRA, but DE-MY business traffic might just be considerable enough to make it work. They really shouldn't continue allowing SQ to be our de facto national carrier.

[JuliusWong 0]

AMS/CDG are planned to return in 2025/2026, subject to equipment availability and receiving necessary government approval on both sides. This was mentioned in one of the MH townhall.

[Craig 0]

Rights are there. Slots are a different issue. MH's European arrivals also coincides with other intercontinental arrivals from the Americas and Africa. Paris is hosting the 2024 Olympic Games and Qantas recently announced their return to Paris via Perth. I'd imagine KL has higher demand to/from Paris compared to Perth and way more beyond connection opportunities as well.

As Chris mentioned, there's a huge hole in MH's European network. I can't imagine European travelers are keen on transiting at LHR to fly with MH. Doesn't help when there are no huge oneworld hubs in the center of Europe as they are all on the fringes of Europe. France (CDG), Germany (FRA/MUC), Italy (MXP but MY doesn't have rights to MXP, only FCO) are probably good cities to serve along with the Netherlands (doesn't really work for most carriers, but it should for MH) to fill in the void in Europe plus IST.

[Craig 0]

On my recent international flight with MH, I noticed that the cabin crew put their hands over their chest (like a normal Malaysian thank you) and then bow at the front of the cabin whilst the purser was making the thank you announcement. I saw them doing it in Y too. Is this a new thing? I haven't seen something like outside of Japanese and Korean carriers.

[Chris Tan 0]

1 hour ago, Craig said:

On my recent international flight with MH, I noticed that the cabin crew put their hands over their chest (like a normal Malaysian thank you) and then bow at the front of the cabin whilst the purser was making the thank you announcement. I saw them doing it in Y too. Is this a new thing? I haven't seen something like outside of Japanese and Korean carriers.

They've been trying to find some sort of unique cultural greeting (like TG's 'wai' or the Japanese/Korean bowing), and that hand-over-the-chest is what they settled on. It just feels a bit forced if I'm being honest. If only they spent that much effort into actually improving their product.

[Craig 0]

2 hours ago, Chris Tan said:

They've been trying to find some sort of unique cultural greeting (like TG's 'wai' or the Japanese/Korean bowing), and that hand-over-the-chest is what they settled on. It just feels a bit forced if I'm being honest. If only they spent that much effort into actually improving their product.

It's not unique to MH. You see them everywhere in KL hospitality industry now.

[jahur 0]

9M-MAH delivery est to be within next week with random upgraded trial flights into BKI.

[sweekee 0]

1 hour ago, jahur said:

9M-MAH delivery est to be within next week with random upgraded trial flights into BKI.

Syabas

[Craig 0]

3 hours ago, jahur said:

9M-MAH delivery est to be within next week with random upgraded trial flights into BKI.

Nice! Will MH secure the second 359 from SK as well?

It looks like there'll be another 359 destination from 9M-MAH. Any clues to where it'll go (I assume MEL will get 9M-MAH since they zeroed out F for MH148/149)? Or will it be used for the second daily DOH flight?

Edited November 4, 2023 by Craig

[Mr.Bandit 0]

7 hours ago, jahur said:

9M-MAH delivery est to be within next week with random upgraded trial flights into BKI.

I don’t sure about trial flights after delivery. But MAH supposely to arrive and later will proceed with C check + bridging. MAB decide to do check in-house as they had capability to do so plus saving cost. It’s common check when the aircraft is going to transfer from lessor to operator. This check plan usually takes about 22-30 calendar days. The earliest it can enter to service in mid Dec. 

[jahur 0]

6 hours ago, Mr.Bandit said:

I don’t sure about trial flights after delivery. But MAH supposely to arrive and later will proceed with C check + bridging. MAB decide to do check in-house as they had capability to do so plus saving cost. It’s common check when the aircraft is going to transfer from lessor to operator. This check plan usually takes about 22-30 calendar days. The earliest it can enter to service in mid Dec. 

My mistake on trial flight. Its actually a stopover in BKI during delivery. Apparently they cant do a direct delivery all the way to KUL as there is no dispensation from CAM to do so and MAB is still applying again to allow direct. Plane is coming from America flying east bound. 

[Chris Tan 0]

2 hours ago, jahur said:

Apparently they cant do a direct delivery all the way to KUL as there is no dispensation from CAM to do so and MAB is still applying again to allow direct. Plane is coming from America flying east bound

Interesting. Why is special permission needed to fly directly into KUL? Seems awfully inefficient to fly eastbound from California when TPAC is most direct. Reminds me of that BFI-KUL (now SZB) record-breaking flight by an MH 77E in 1997.

[jahur 0]

47 minutes ago, Chris Tan said:

Interesting. Why is special permission needed to fly directly into KUL? Seems awfully inefficient to fly eastbound from California when TPAC is most direct. Reminds me of that BFI-KUL (now SZB) record-breaking flight by an MH 77E in 1997.

Overheard FDP may be limited. But again mab can always reapply from cam. There's also no info if mab crew ate actually flying it or its the lessors team. There's also seasonal winds at play with strong headwind for any west bound flights going to nearly 100knots on certain corridor. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by jahur

[Craig 0]

So no news about Japan granting Malaysia a daytime slot at HND with Japan PM Kishida's official visit to Malaysia? 🤭 Maybe from one of those sanctioned countries slot (IIRC they have 2 daytime slots).

Edited November 5, 2023 by Craig

[Craig 0]

Severe delays on the 333 flights again. If you look at 9M-MTK/MTO delays these last few days, it’s ridiculous. So much so that MH 66 to ICN on 6/11 was delayed overnight awaiting arrival from MEL (MH129). AKL/DPS/PER are all delayed pretty bad as well.