MH's efforts to reduce costs...

[Sanjay Thaker 0]

Just got information that in order to save cost..and reduce A/C weight..MH would be not giving out Menu Cards for EY pax....2ndly....if the load on a 747 FC is 1-6 pax...only 50% of the equipment will be loaded..i think these are two smart moves..firstly..how many pax in EY actually need the menu card...you only have 2 selections..2ndly ....why the need to carry lots of equipment if theres only 1-6 pax in FC..this is something they shld have implemented long ago...but its good tht they are moving towards goodness again..

[Sing Yew 1]

Correct me if I'm wrong but how much weight could be possibly reduced if menu cards are not distributed to EY passengers ? It doesn't really cost that much to have them printed isn't it ? Considering the fact that they are collected and redistributed in the next flight.

 

[Sanjay Thaker 0]

Consider the amount of flights a day...times by the amount of days in a month...u know this lil sum..makes a big amount in the end..MH is a big airline...there are plenty of flights..and eventually it makes a diff in terms of cost of printing..and fuel consumed...

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

Reducing on the cost index , making flights longer maybe , slower cruising speed can save some $$

[Isaac 0]

MH would be not giving out Menu Cards for EY pax

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A great way to safe $$$$. Why print the "menu cards" when the lazy flight attendants don't even bother to hand it out to us ???? Anyway, i really hope they will resume the printing of EY "menu cards" once their situation are getting better & MUST force their flight attendants to give it out to the passengers no matter it's a short, medium or long haul flight.

[Rozhan 0]

I think menu cards, particularly the small and thin 4 x 8 inches, 8-page economy class cards, are too small and light to make much of a difference. The Going Places magazine and Select inflight entertainment guide which use high quality paper is considerably heavier. Besides, in my opinion, menu cards add to the flight's culinary experience, even if Y food isn't that much to talk about. But if they really have to remove the Y class menus, then maybe the menu can be made in digital form and incorporated into the inflight entertainment program menu. Easier to update with no printing costs.

 

But whatever they do, budget permitting, I hope they will be able to maintain the spirit of their 'Going Beyond Expectations' and 'An Experience Redefined' slogans which have by themselves set certain standards that people expect. I believe MAS has spent so much on the Going Beyond Expectations program and it will be a waste to let it all put to past.

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

the menu can be made in digital form and incorporated into the inflight entertainment program menu. Easier to update with no printing costs.

 

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thats a good idea .

Care to fill in their feedback forms ?

[Pieter C. 5]

Don't think menu-cards will make much difference...

 

You could think of reconfigure aircraft for instance, like removing First Class and replace that with Business Class: looking at the MH017 ex AMS, for instance, F/C is ALWAYS empty (ZERO passengers last week) and C/C is always almost full (usually 40+ per flight), so, this way you can generate more income by selling more "space" on board not sure what their onboard sales consists of, but remove heavy items here (like drinks, cigarettes) and replace it with lighter items, like fragrances, skincare, cosmetics, sunglasses, pens and accessories, leather and textiles, jewelry and watches etc.etc.

 

Think also to the following:

 

switch off the APU as soon as you taxi out

switch off the outer-engines (of the 744) as soon as you taxi in

use higher altitudes and fly at a slightly lower speed

 

all to reduce (expensive) fuel-consumption...

 

main cost reduction factor would be to reduce on (overhead) ground-staff, like so many airlines did in the past (look at BA and KL for instance), but noticed in another thread that would be "political difficult" for MH

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

Switching the outer engines off , i'm not sure about that because the number 2 and 3 will need to burn more fuel to move the aircraft right ? not sure about this .

 

About the inflight sales , you're right , they could remove some stuff .

 

Maybe they could sell business class tickets and just put them in first class instead of wasting money reconfiguring the aircraft . I'm sure it wouldn't be much of a difference in terms of costs

[Guest Fendy]

Maybe they could sell business class tickets and just put them in first class instead of wasting money reconfiguring the aircraft . I'm sure it wouldn't be much of a difference in terms of costs

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it will still operate at a a loss. less of a loss, but still a loss nontheless. because you can fit more C seats in the space of an F seat. so essentially you are seeling more space for the price of 1, which means less pax for the same price. if you get what i mean

[Rozhan 0]

I'll be flying on 19 Sept and I'll have a chat with the FA to know if MAS is going ahead in its plans to remove the menus. I had dealt with a few printers in the past in my work and I know printing these menus don't cost much, unless MAS has been paying insane prices without actually knowing what they cost.

 

The current MAS Golden Holidays brochure is I think even more wasteful if printing cost is much of a concern to MAS. There is a saperate brochure for the destination guide and another similarly big brochure for the price list. The destination guide is in full colour (understandably to attract potential holidaymakers) while the price list even has its own full colour cover even if the inside pages are normal black and white. In the previous brochures, only the destination guide is in full colour while the price list in black and white and simply slipped in between the pages of the destination guide.

 

Recently when we sent our maid back for her holiday on Garuda, I notice that Garuda's paper ticket is proudly printed in Indonesia. How come MAS still has to import its paper tickets from Bording of Denmark, perhaps paying in Euros, while our neighbour can print their own.

 

Anyway I hope MAS is mindful of not to affect its customers' pleasant flying experience with them. Instead of enriching its suppliers and outsourcing companies with bloated bills and fees, going the extra mile for paying passengers and delighting them along the way will certainly attract goodwill.

 

In yesterday's 'The Exchange' program on TV3, in an interview with Dato' Tony Fernandez, he said there is an important announcement next week regarding the cooperation between MAS and Air Asia. Let's hope with this new cooperation, both airlines can do what they do best in their market segment.

 

About removing items from the inflight sales, MAS has already made bulky items like Hogan Wings aircraft models and First Class replica duvet exclusively for mail order. Besides, people expect liquor and cigarettes to be standard items for inflight duty free sales.

 

MAS Golden Boutique is going all out to maximize profits, and also the FA's get commission selling them, as what I've been told. They will not be too happy if there are less things to sell. These inflight sales items generate money for MAS anyway, unlike freebies that they can consider cutting down on. But then what freebies are there left these days

[Pieter C. 5]

it will still operate at a a loss. less of a loss, but still a loss nontheless. because you can fit more C seats in the space of an F seat. so essentially you are seeling more space for the price of 1, which means less pax for the same price. if you get what i mean

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Fendy, that was exactly my point: replace the F-class seats with more C-class seats and generate more income per square feet that way

 

At least, from AMS, and I believe also from FRA and CDG, these F-class seats are a "waste" anyhow; don't know the loads ex LHR/MAN, though, which could be better

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

it will still operate at a a loss. less of a loss, but still a loss nontheless. because you can fit more C seats in the space of an F seat. so essentially you are seeling more space for the price of 1, which means less pax for the same price. if you get what i mean

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But for now their aircraft is already configured with the first class that is empty

Perhaps for now , they should just make do with what they have and try to fill that room there with some passengers

 

At least they can cover up some of their loss

[Mohd Razif 0]

how about having a regional division of MH just like SQ and Silkair?will that reduce MH's losses,using smaller a/c maybe?just my 2cent...

[Pieter C. 5]

Razif,

 

That will only work if salary scales are also lower than the current ones:

 

Make a different division with seperate/lower pay-scale for everyone (both air- and groundstaff) and fly smaller aircraft should do the trick, like KLM and KLM cityhopper overhere are doing, as well as Lufthansa and Lufthansa Regional/Cityline, just to name a few

[Rozhan 0]

Does anyone know where MAS gets its Air Sickness bags from these days? A trivial question, but in 1998 I flew on MAS and I remember my own surprise because back then, at the bottom of the bag, was printed 'Made in Switzerland' Wow! Did MAS have to go so far for those bags? But then it was during the tenure of TR

[Guest Fendy]

Fendy, that was exactly my point: replace the F-class seats with more C-class seats and generate more income per square feet that way 

 

At least, from AMS, and I believe also from FRA and CDG, these F-class seats are a "waste" anyhow; don't know the loads ex LHR/MAN, though, which could be better

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exactly. however, someone has got to pay the costs to overhaul their a/c to change them to 2 class config as well.

 

Does anyone know where MAS gets its Air Sickness bags from these days? A trivial question, but in 1998 I flew on MAS and I remember my own surprise because back then, at the bottom of the bag, was printed 'Made in Switzerland'    Wow! Did MAS have to go so far for those bags? But then it was during the tenure of TR

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i think they are made in singapore. i could be wrong.

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

thats why I said , they should use the existing F seats for C class until its time to reconfigure the cabin

[Guest Fendy]

i know F class is heavily utilised on the LAX run, at least. 100% full, last time i flew. same for the JNB-KUL sector i was on, but most i beleive are captain family/C class upgrade.

[Y. J. Foo 0]

Is that possible to make these F/C and GC/C quick-changeable, ie they replace the seat as required?

 

Sounds like an insane idea, but would work if that's possible and feasible.

 

Or plan B-make 747 in two versions-one with F/C and another in GC/C but it may make things rather complex...

 

I'd rather don't let those menu cards disappear from the E/C as that'd make my collectibles less and less...

[Rozhan 0]

I'd rather don't let those menu cards disappear from the E/C as that'd make my collectibles less and less...

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If the EY class menu is gone, then whatever menus already in collection will be even rarer

 

[Gavin Andrew David 6]

all this cabin retrofitting and painting the aircraft is surely costing them alot of money

if they knew they were losing money , why'd they decide to retrofit the 74 cabins

[Guest Fendy]

all this cabin retrofitting and painting the aircraft is surely costing them alot of money

if they knew they were losing money , why'd they decide to retrofit the 74 cabins

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the cabin retrofitting is inline with MH service upgrade, which is WAAAYYY overdue.

[Sanjay Thaker 0]

the cabin retrofitting is inline with MH service upgrade, which is WAAAYYY overdue.

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Yes....badly needed..if they didnt do it..they would lose wayyyy more money...too!

[Rozhan 0]

An interesting article came out it today’s (Thursday Sept The Malay Mail. In the MailMoney column on page 36, in an interview with former MAS number 2 until his retirement last year, Dr. Mohd Don Abdullah said, among others (in verbatim):

 

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to run MAS. But the Government has to decide : is profit the sole obligation or do we still fulfill our national obligations?"

 

Dr Don conceded that MAS was overstaffed but could not do anything about it. "We tried once in 1987-88 when we wanted to cut 1000 personnel but the government said no."

 

Worse was the inefficient use of manpower - for example, overtime payments top RM 100 million a year and health costs, RM 31 million a year.

 

Dr Don also claimed that KLIA had pilferage problems that were borne by MAS. "When I was there, our monthly bill for claims was around RM 500,000. I hope it has since dropped, but it was outrageous."

 

To Dr Don, an airline's money cannot come simply from flight operations. "Like SIA, it also has to come out of the ground handling business, the catering, the repair and maintenence, the cargo etc."

 

"But what do we do?", he asked. "We sold MAS Catering to a local company in a joint venture with Lufthansa Skychef. In our own market, we are now being served food by the Germans."