MAS Privatisation

[flee 5]

1 hour ago, JuliusWong said:

SQ has an enduring love for MH crew since Day 1 when Singapore and Malaysia went separate way. That's show how good MH trains its cabin crew! 

I believe it isn't only SQ - most Sg employers find Malaysians a cheap and willing labour source to recruit.

[JuliusWong 0]

On 2/2/2024 at 2:44 PM, jahur said:

Recently Riyadh has started their own poaching. CX months ago saw the signs and hit the panic button cause they also experienced massive amount of crew leaving. BOD on swire group and etc out of spite then allowed a massive hike for the tech crew pays but it will affect the financials. Capts now taking back almost 80K usd monthly with 80-90ish duty high hours and the FO's also getting a hike that almost matches with the gulfs. Next coming months Air India(Post Vistara) will also start their tour around Asean and the oriental region. Few carriers in Mainland China have also reported started to adjust the payscale to avoid massive exodus as a response.

Those countries at the ME3 their flying schools have very low uptake which is sad. Flying or being a cabin crew is not a a career their locals look highly upon(well given how shitty air travel is nowadays they have a point as well). The airlines over there with the help from their respective gov's have to offset part of it hiring massive amount of expats and foreigners and giving high salaries.

Yes, CX underestimated their manpower shortfall from pandemic. The recent mass flight cancellation in Christmas 2023 to New Year 2024 just shows how oblivious the incompetent on what was happening on the ground. CX management is at loggerheads with the pilot union since the start of the pandemic. Back in June 2023, Cathay had 734 captains in June, half as many as it had in the last quarter of 2019. Many senior pilots lost their jobs, or quit over pay cuts of up to 40% over the past three years as Cathay tightened its belt. The management then stated they had sufficient pilots, cabin crew and operational employees to support their current flight schedule, then December came, bam! The truck hit them like a brick. Then they started to recruit new pilots, first batch of 21 graduated last month. It will take more than a decade to replace the lost talent. Emirates is coming to HK and Singapore for recruitment, right at SQ's and CX's face. LOL.

One may justify that a lot of those very senior crew were on legacy contract from British colonisation era, hence the CX management used the pandemic as a reason to rescind all the contracts and redo the contract all over. Given how well they were paid and enjoyed host of benefits, did the management ever think those pilot are going to swallow the new contract?? Sounds like CX is borrowing the playbook from MH. The irony both of them are in oneworld. 

Can't command much abt Mainland China pilots but I only know they need the company approval to leave, if not CAAC will not release them.

On the ME locals not taking up cabin crew jobs, yes! The main reason why KU, SV and WY started recruiting Malaysians in the early 90s, the trend continued with the emergence of EK, EY and QR. Malaysians should be proud we are sought after overseas. 

Today, MH management sent out email to all ex-cabin crews asking them to consider returning to MH. What a bunch of jokers! As far as what I have browsed on IG, MH has lost so much talent, there were few very good male cabin attendants went to SQ and CX. Female cabin attendants went to EK and QR. 

[JuliusWong 0]

On 1/30/2024 at 5:19 PM, jahur said:

Not mistaken the PW equipped a330 have lower commercial payload+range. The plus side was the maintenance cost package. Apart from that the current 3 A332F with lower mtow cant do AMS direct(beyond 20 tonne commercial payload) as they're not equipped with external fuel tanks unlike the 6 pax version from ex air berlin.

For now there is no indication if the current a330ceos can fully exit the fleet by 2027-2029. This solely relies on the additional 20 optional slots for the a330-900 that MAG has yet to firmed anything. The worse case scenario in play is MH not firming anything past the 20 frames means it has to retain a small fleet of a330ceo due network requirement. The old plan was them to have at least 33 widebody but now it seems the CEO is hinting them needing between 35-40.

The old MH A330-300 9M-MT series was an order for 15 firm and 10 optional. But the airline just took 15 at the end. The 1990s B777 orders were also changed along the way with i believe some of them expressing interest in the 300ER project before the A380 was pushed instead by the early 2000s.

Took me some time to gather some information. Based on the official Airbus TDCS documentation, there are three variants for A330-200F for both PW and RR engines. Not sure which one did MH opted for, but I think the standard was 233 tons back then. 

Some of the younger A330-300ceo should be operating along side with A330-900neo owing to the possibly teething issue with the new fleet and the A330neo are not delivered fast enough to allow MH to retire the ceo quickly. Airbus is planning to hike the production rate to four per month in 2024. If CX chooses A330neo over B787s for their regional fleet renewal, the rate will probably go further up.

I always think that MH not firming up the 10 options for A330ceo was a very poor decision by Tengku Azmil and Ahmad Jauhari. Those 10 extra A330ceo would come in very handy now for India and Australian/NZ routes. A330ceo was at tail-end production and Airbus was desperate to fill the production slots, MH could have gotten a very good discount. Let's hope they made a better decision on their 20 options for A330neo.

As for MH changing the B777 order, the main reason I dug up from archives was MH was suffering from financial constraint during the Asian Financial Crisis 1998, MH rejigged the B747-400 and B777 (both 200ER and -300) order to B747-400 and all B777-200ERs. B77W was only introduced in 2004.

Here is an article from January 1996 on MH placing its first order for 15 B777s and 10 B747s order, with options for two more B777s and three B747-400s. The 15 B777s included four B777-300 according to Boeing archive dated back in April 1997. A month before, MH also signed an agreement to be the launch customer for B777-200X which would eventually became B777-200LR. MH cancelled the agreement, and the launch customer honour went to Pakistan International Airlines. MH was once trendsetter right??

Not sure if there was any truth behind the B77W vs. A380s assessment, here is the first press release when the A380s order was made public. There was a lot of hearsay Tun M ordered MH to order A380s due to his ego. Only those in the know behind the scene can attest to this.

Edited February 4 by JuliusWong

[flee 5]

I think the A330 options were dropped because MH was bleeding cash like nobody's business during that period - so to take on more capital commitments was unwise. Having said that, it was also unwise to retire the B777 fleet so quickly. Fleet planning isn't one of MH's strengths. Even SQ makes mistakes with the fleet, but they do fix their errors promptly. MH just sweeps problems under the carpet and hope that they go away magically!

Lets hope we get some news about the wide body options after the CNY holidays.

[Craig 0]

Anyone knows what's up with MH and HND? MH withdrew from HND September 2023 but MH has re-applied and received the rights to operate 2x weekly KUL-HND for flights beginning March 2024.

[jahur 0]

On 2/5/2024 at 1:33 AM, JuliusWong said:

Took me some time to gather some information. Based on the official Airbus TDCS documentation, there are three variants for A330-200F for both PW and RR engines. Not sure which one did MH opted for, but I think the standard was 233 tons back then.

Some of the younger A330-300ceo should be operating along side with A330-900neo owing to the possibly teething issue with the new fleet and the A330neo are not delivered fast enough to allow MH to retire the ceo quickly. Airbus is planning to hike the production rate to four per month in 2024. If CX chooses A330neo over B787s for their regional fleet renewal, the rate will probably go further up.

I always think that MH not firming up the 10 options for A330ceo was a very poor decision by Tengku Azmil and Ahmad Jauhari. Those 10 extra A330ceo would come in very handy now for India and Australian/NZ routes. A330ceo was at tail-end production and Airbus was desperate to fill the production slots, MH could have gotten a very good discount. Let's hope they made a better decision on their 20 options for A330neo.

As for MH changing the B777 order, the main reason I dug up from archives was MH was suffering from financial constraint during the Asian Financial Crisis 1998, MH rejigged the B747-400 and B777 (both 200ER and -300) order to B747-400 and all B777-200ERs. B77W was only introduced in 2004.

Here is an article from January 1996 on MH placing its first order for 15 B777s and 10 B747s order, with options for two more B777s and three B747-400s. The 15 B777s included four B777-300 according to Boeing archive dated back in April 1997. A month before, MH also signed an agreement to be the launch customer for B777-200X which would eventually became B777-200LR. MH cancelled the agreement, and the launch customer honour went to Pakistan International Airlines. MH was once trendsetter right??

Not sure if there was any truth behind the B77W vs. A380s assessment, here is the first press release when the A380s order was made public. There was a lot of hearsay Tun M ordered MH to order A380s due to his ego. Only those in the know behind the scene can attest to this.

The 4 a332f Maskargo received have no external fuel tanks with a max endurance of about 10.5hours with max cargo, so it cant really do nonstop cargo flights to europe. Also they were delivered without the auto floor roller as a  result the ground staffs have to use physical strength to push the cargo. Stark contrast to the 2 b744f which were delivered in near full spec.

The contingency plan is to always hold a few a330ceo if they cant get fleet replacement timeline in check or did not place proper replacement to facilitate replacement. Though them being sloppy when it comes to cabin and aircraft reliability shows it may not be a good idea. One good example is look at the ATR fleet which are essentially broken planes flying with missing landing gear doors or one side autopilot inop or even inaccurate fuel readings.

B77W project was something tossed around to many airlines in 2001 it was not even called 300ER back then with MH being offered to retool and defer orders for it if necessary. The B777 orders MH had was quite flexible. Anyhow it is good MH did not took the 200LR that plane was a 300ER in fuel consumption but carried less people and served MH no purpose looking at how MAS failed the long haul market when it comes to yields.

A lot of the mess msia is in right now can be directly tied to Tun M. Reliable  FA-18D subsequent cancellation(as a spite to bill clinton). Also the core cause for Malaysia being too heavily reliant on the unreliable french and tossing around the palm oil barter trade offset for the most part with Najib executing the remainder. The A380 was an ongoing bundle deal which resulted the Scorpene, CTRM and the A400M for larger discounts and local bumiputera tech transfer setup for cronies. It was also why Airasia got favorable discount aircraft rates for its large order of a320ceos.

[JuliusWong 0]

Malaysia Airlines missed the boat to add eight A350. SE-RSC MSN391 is going back to SAS

https://www.flightglobal.com/airlines/sas-looks-to-re-introduce-a350-previously-shed-during-fleet-restructuring/156844.article

On a side note, all remaining HNA A350s which were repossessed are now heading to Thai Airways. 

Edited February 8 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

Malaysia Airlines, Firefly and Batik Air will be doing a series of charter flights to China.

Malaysia Airlines MH8827 from Shenyang, Liaoning, China. Operated by A330-323 9M-MTJ

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/mh8827

Others:

1. Firefly route Nanjing-Tawau (starting Jan 23)
2. Batik Air routes

• Chengdu-Langkawi (starting Feb 5)
• Zhengzhou-KUL (starting Feb 5)
• Chengdu-Kota Kinabalu (starting Feb 9)
• Chongqing-Langkawi (starting Feb 10)
• Xian-KUL (starting Feb 11)

in addition, KUL is currently seeing frequency increase and a few new entrants in China-Malaysia market. 

1. China Eastern Airlines route Beijing-Kuala Lumpur (four times weekly, starting Jan 31)
2. Loong Air route Hangzhou-KUL (three times weekly, starting Feb 1)
3. Batik Air route Kunming-KUL (4 times weekly, starting Feb 9), and upcoming route Zhangjiajie-KUL (three times weekly, starting Feb 18).

Edited February 15 by JuliusWong

[JuliusWong 0]

With the resurgence of TG, I wonder what game plan MH has up its sleeve in the next decade. During the same period, TG will eventually have 54 B787s, 17 B77Ws, 26 A350s, 20 A320ceos, 21 A321neos= 138. That is a lot of widebody capacity being pumped into Asia, Europe and Australian routes. I hope MH will firm up the other 20 A330neos order and 20 A321neo/B737-MAX10 order. TG will also refurbish its narrowbody J class with recliner seat, MH is save here for now.

[jahur 0]

18 minutes ago, JuliusWong said:

With the resurgence of TG, I wonder what game plan MH has up its sleeve in the next decade. During the same period, TG will eventually have 54 B787s, 17 B77Ws, 26 A350s, 20 A320ceos, 21 A321neos= 138. That is a lot of widebody capacity being pumped into Asia, Europe and Australian routes. I hope MH will firm up the other 20 A330neos order and 20 A321neo/B737-MAX10 order. TG will also refurbish its narrowbody J class with recliner seat, MH is save here for now.

Thai Airways to Retrofit A320s with Royal Silk Seats

Quote

Currently, TG’s A320s are fitted with 168-174 economy/premium economy seats; by late 2024, Thai will reconfigure the cabin with 12 Royal Silk (business) class seats and 144 economy class seats. Thai also said passengers could look forward to a “wireless inflight entertainment system” where passengers can connect personal devices for an “enhanced onboard experience.”

Thai's retrofitted a320 plan seems to be a lot better than MH's z600i on the max and NG with the only promise given by the MAG's CEO that it wont be deployed on flights beyond 4hours(for now). While the fear of Thai imploding the market with so much aircraft orders and random AOC approvals, there's not much to worry as it will always be bailed out no matter what. Meanwhile over here its every man for himself and customer experience is receiving the short end of the stick.

It pretty much put MH below GA, SQ and TG in the narrowbody fleet but slightly ahead of PR and VN a321.

Edited February 16 by jahur

[Izanee 0]

Unfortunately MH is very reactionary. I don’t blame the government looking at their past performances over the years. 
 

at a time when other airlines are cashing in on the resurgence in travel, MH is struggling to find aircraft. Their MAX-8 interiors are sad.. they should have gone for what SQ went for. They you have flexibility to use them on longer medium haul routes and keep a slightly premium product. 
 

anyways … it is what it is 

[Pall 0]

15 hours ago, jahur said:

Thai Airways to Retrofit A320s with Royal Silk Seats

Thai's retrofitted a320 plan seems to be a lot better than MH's z600i on the max and NG with the only promise given by the MAG's CEO that it wont be deployed on flights beyond 4hours(for now). While the fear of Thai imploding the market with so much aircraft orders and random AOC approvals, there's not much to worry as it will always be bailed out no matter what. Meanwhile over here its every man for himself and customer experience is receiving the short end of the stick.

It pretty much put MH below GA, SQ and TG in the narrowbody fleet but slightly ahead of PR and VN a321.

It's already being used on 5-6hrs flights to AMD and ATQ. I'm guessing the bosses and planners are not in the same whatsapp group on this.

[jahur 0]

1 hour ago, Pall said:

It's already being used on 5-6hrs flights to AMD and ATQ. I'm guessing the bosses and planners are not in the same whatsapp group on this.

Well some may see them being delusional based on them saying they're planning to go on head to head with SQ lol.

[flee 5]

19 hours ago, Izanee said:

Unfortunately MH is very reactionary. I don’t blame the government looking at their past performances over the years. 

at a time when other airlines are cashing in on the resurgence in travel, MH is struggling to find aircraft. Their MAX-8 interiors are sad.. they should have gone for what SQ went for. They you have flexibility to use them on longer medium haul routes and keep a slightly premium product. 

anyways … it is what it is 

Very sad the Max is not fitted with appropriate cabins to conduct longer flights - I think that 6-7 hour flights will exploit their better fuel efficiency. It is a shame that they are using the Max in the same manner as the NG. Very unimaginative!

[Pall 0]

22 hours ago, jahur said:

Well some may see them being delusional based on them saying they're planning to go on head to head with SQ lol.

As the millennials say it "delulu" , TG have started retrofitting their A320s (previously from Thai Smile) to have flat beds/proper BC seats. This would allow closer streamlining between NB/WB product. MH is regressing towards LCC level with their current narrowbody product. 

[JuliusWong 0]

8 hours ago, Pall said:

As the millennials say it "delulu" , TG have started retrofitting their A320s (previously from Thai Smile) to have flat beds/proper BC seats. This would allow closer streamlining between NB/WB product. MH is regressing towards LCC level with their current narrowbody product. 

Agree on the "delulu" part. LOL.

Actually, TG is installing Recaro's CL4710 for its new narrowbody J class, also a recliner. Same as MH's Safran Z600i, both are classified as short-mid haul business class product by its respective OEM.

[JuliusWong 0]

On 2/16/2024 at 5:07 PM, jahur said:

Thai Airways to Retrofit A320s with Royal Silk Seats

Thai's retrofitted a320 plan seems to be a lot better than MH's z600i on the max and NG with the only promise given by the MAG's CEO that it wont be deployed on flights beyond 4hours(for now). While the fear of Thai imploding the market with so much aircraft orders and random AOC approvals, there's not much to worry as it will always be bailed out no matter what. Meanwhile over here its every man for himself and customer experience is receiving the short end of the stick.

It pretty much put MH below GA, SQ and TG in the narrowbody fleet but slightly ahead of PR and VN a321.

MH truly missed the boat in providing a premium hardware when they retrofitted the NG fleet and with the 737max EIS. They could have gone to Collins Aerospace Diamond or Thompson Vantage, which between the two, the latter will bring MH's narrowbody consistent with its widebody.

Currently for  MH has:

Short Haul Business Class:

1. Zodiac Aerospace Weber recliner seats on older B737-800NG 9M-FFF, MLK and MLL
2. BE Aerospace Millennium recliner on non-retrofitted B737-800NG
3. Safran Z600 recliner seats on retrofitted B737-800NG and B737-MAX8

Long Haul Business Class:

1. Stelia Aerospace Solstys on A330-200
2. Thompson Vantage on A330-300 and A350-900
3. Thompson Vantage XL on A350-900 (9M-MAH)

Collins Aerospace Diamond

Thompson Vantage

Edited February 18 by JuliusWong

[Chris Tan 0]

I’m not seeing anything that suggests TG will be installing some super-premium product on their A320s. It doesn’t even have seatback IFE which puts it in the same category as MH’s 73H. 

I know the 73Hs are awful for anything longer than a KUL-SIN/HKT hop, but TG isn’t much better in that regard.

[JuliusWong 0]

On 2/17/2024 at 2:46 AM, Izanee said:

Unfortunately MH is very reactionary. I don’t blame the government looking at their past performances over the years. 
at a time when other airlines are cashing in on the resurgence in travel, MH is struggling to find aircraft. Their MAX-8 interiors are sad.. they should have gone for what SQ went for. They you have flexibility to use them on longer medium haul routes and keep a slightly premium product. 
anyways … it is what it is 

IMO, I do not think MH has issue finding the right equipment, rather finding and getting an equipment at the right price is the main issue. It took them quite a while to get its seventh A350, and now dragging its feet on the eight. The plan might not happen at all since all used A350s in the market is now dried up. Moving onto B737max, MH could have taken up those 737max not taken up by other airlines, but they chose to wait for their own, which was and is still hit by several delays due to Boeing manufacturing quality issue. They could have taken the COVID19 as an opportunity to re-equip its older fleet quickly with new interiors. Retire the horrible A330-200, and get in more A350-900s. Well the new used equipment has different interior, at least it is better than current ones onboard A330-200. Or even the B787s, sign up a good support deal with Boeing, negotiate heavily with financial house for a good deal during the pandemic and get the equipment in. There were so many used B787s in the market back then. Now we are saddled with A330-900s which is one generation behind the newer equipment. Let's not forget, the B737max 10/ A321neos dilemma, the writing is on the wall for some time Boeing won't be able to get them certified and EIS anytime soon, MH should have just sign up with lessor for 20 pieces and get over and done with. If they are to place an order on its own now, they can only receive it towards the end of the decade. Most bigger SEA airlines has or will eventually A321neo in their fleet, except GA and MH now.

To survive the ruthless aviation industry, you need to either go big or go home, especially now with the pent-up demand. No one knows how long it will last, best to max the opportunity now. TG has the same predicament as MH, but was very bold in making their moves. Absorbed ThaiSmile, sold properties in various location in Thailand and around the world, retire and sold older fleet and reequip their fleet quickly. They snapped up almost every available used A350s in the market, competing with Delta Airlines and Lufthansa. As a snapshot, those 45 B787-9 order they placed recently are mainly for capacity replacement and only 15 for expansion. 

MH is a case of "penny wi se, pound foolish". And that pound foolish will come back to bite their backside few years down the road. Oh well, some here may say, "Haiya, you dun know what is happening behind the scene la. Deal with it. Go fly SQ then." And that is the exact mindset is what is pushing premium passengers to SQ, EK, EY, QR, TK et al. You can only earn minute profit from Y class, you need sustainable profit both front and the back of the plane.

Edited February 19 by JuliusWong

[Pall 0]

On 2/19/2024 at 9:48 AM, JuliusWong said:

 

MH is a case of "penny wi se, pound foolish". And that pound foolish will come back to bite their backside few years down the road. Oh well, some here may say, "Haiya, you dun know what is happening behind the scene la. Deal with it. Go fly SQ then." And that is the exact mindset is what is pushing premium passengers to SQ, EK, EY, QR, TK et al. You can only earn minute profit from Y class, you need sustainable profit both front and the back of the plane.

Always the case. That's why SQ is centuries ahead.

[Alif A. F. 0]

I guess with recent discussion regarding MH fleet planning, want to share the latest news from our neighbour:

Royal Brunei Places 787 Order With An Eye On 787-8 Replacement | Aviation Week Network

 

[Craig 0]

MH will swap its 300 seater A350 (ex-SK) from MEL to DOH for NS24 schedule. That's quite a lot of capacity for DOH-KUL, 2x359 (MH) and 2x77W (QR). And MH 350s seems to have quite a bit of ground time (both KUL and outstation) compared to the 333s.

[Craig 0]

3 hours ago, Pall said:

Always the case. That's why SQ is centuries ahead.

SQ also has huge bank/corporate contracts in addition to connecting a lot of pax around the world. Also helps when their home base is one of the wealthiest in the world.

And it doesn't really help when the Malaysian government doesn't see forests for the trees. Do you think they will want to pay a very capitalist but popular singer RM10 million per show for exclusive rights to host a concert in ASEAN? I don't think ordinary taxpayers will agree to this as well. It's the same for MH. Government and your everyday taxpayers aren't willing to pump in money to buy brand new planes or install lie-flats on the 7M8.

[Craig 0]

28 minutes ago, Alif A. F. said:

I guess with recent discussion regarding MH fleet planning, want to share the latest news from our neighbour:

Royal Brunei Places 787 Order With An Eye On 787-8 Replacement | Aviation Week Network

 

To be fair, the current 788s will be 15 years old when the first 789 arrives (according to the article). 9M-MTA is only 12 years old but the A339s are expected to arrive later this year.

I am more curious if MH will announce any orders at the SG airshow. They aren't known for announcing orders at an airshow but the narrow body replacement and additionally wide bodies are supposed to be announced Q1 2024.

[BC Tam 2]

4 hours ago, Pall said:

That's why SQ is centuries ahead.

Wow, that would be some heritage to be impressed by - like twenty odd years from the W brothers' first flight ?! 😜