MAS Agrees To Try Miri-Guangzhou-Hong Kong Transit Flight

[Naim 6]

I'm not exactly sure why Chinese tourists would want to come to Miri. Anyway Mulu is not really for everybody.

 

[My stories on Miri and Mulu can be found HERE.]

 

+++

 

April 05, 2007 21:43 PM

 

MAS Agrees To Try Miri-Guangzhou-Hong Kong Transit Flight

 

MIRI, April 5 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has agreed to start a transit flight from here to Guangzhou and Hong Kong with a stop in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah after being unable to fulfil a request for direct flights between Miri and the two destinations in China.

 

State Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Development and Communications Lee Kim Shin said at his recent meeting with MAS management, mobilisation problem was the reason given for the direct flight proposal to be turned down.

 

Speaking at a dialogue with tourism operators organised by Tourism Malaysia and the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) here, he said MAS' agreement to start the transit flight was a small breakthrough to bring more tourists here.

 

He added that MAS would be working on the details of the proposed flight and had yet to give the actual date for the flight commencement.

 

He said although he personally preferred MAS to start three direct flights weekly from here to the two destinations, he hoped the proposed transit flight would receive overwhelming response to make the national airline to reconsider direct flights.

 

He said a MAS Golden Holiday Package management team would be coming to Miri on April 19 to find out about the tourism products available here, following his request after the resort city was not listed for the holiday packages.

 

Speaking to reporters after the dialogue, he said calls made by people in the state for another airline to serve the domestic routes in Sarawak should be taken up by the Transport Ministry.

 

He admitted that there had not been much improvement since the rationalisation exercise in Sarawak last August that saw Fly Asian Xpress (FAX) taking over most of the domestic routes in the state.

 

"We cannot prolong this (air connectivity problem) because it will not only affect our tourism industry but is also causing inconvenience to domestic travellers," he added.

 

-- BERNAMA

[Edwin Lau 0]

dunno them I think the just making noises... We already have this flights transiting in KCH why would they transit in MYY again??

[Sandeep G 1]

what ever happened to route rationilising.... maybe this sort of route is better for a carrier like AirAsia to try out??

 

I've pondered over this for some time, but would it be safe to say that the requests for air-routes between Sarawak and the world by the Sarawak state government are often a little far-fetched when it comes to addressing the issue of sustainability? MAS always seems to have to entertain these requests and does so with marginal success if any at all...

 

I think AirAsiaX/AirAsia/FAX would be well suited partners for the development of traffic into/ex Sarawak. However, if the Sarawak govt. REALLY were confident of growth etc etc etc, they could expand Hornbill into a regional carrier. Would love to see some A320s in the Hornbill livery! Think big, but start small eh?? But again... probably not sustainable..

 

 

[KK Lee 5]

 

I always advocate to makes BKI a hub to serve Borneo and Southern Philippines.

 

It is easy for MH to time arrivals to BKI for connection to North Asia destinations and vv. Very often, after politic come into play; MH will initiate point to point service without considering connecting pax; ended up with poor yield and service withdrawal at the end.

 

MH is lacking the will to change. Wonder how long they can be profitable if fuel surcharge is no longer applicable.

 

 

[Pieter C. 5]

MH will initiate point to point service without considering connecting pax; ended up with poor yield and service withdrawal at the end.

 

MH should take a look at KLM, regarding the connecting pax flow: 65-70% of KLM passengers at Schiphol are transits

Just make sure, your (connecting) schedules are almost 'as fast' as the point-to-point ones

 

[Sandeep G 1]

MH should take a look at KLM, regarding the connecting pax flow: 65-70% of KLM passengers at Schiphol are transits

Just make sure, your (connecting) schedules are almost 'as fast' as the point-to-point ones

 

Hi Pieter,

 

They not too long ago invested in a new scheduling system that is supposed to decrease aircraft downtime and maximise usage as well as improve inter-connectivity times for transit pax.. AirAsia with it's AirAsiaX will soon be a boon to the transit market in Malaysia. MAS should really have a triple daily northbound and southbound wave!

 

i.e. when southern hemisphere traffic arrives, most northern hemisphere departures leave not long after. And when Northern Hemisphere traffic arrives, Southern Hemisphere departures should leave not too long after. Perhaps a 2 hour timegap for long-haul travellers and a 1-1.5 hour transit for regional/intra-continental services. Then MAS could coordinate shift times for staff (reduce non-productive man-hours), maintenance time for A/C, and really offer convenience to passengers. Domestic services ofcourse would continue to operate frequently enough during the day to always permit transit pax and domestic pax convenience.

 

The "Wave" system is sort of employed now by MAS, but I think it could be greatly improved.

[Pieter C. 5]

Hi Pieter,

i.e. when southern hemisphere traffic arrives, most northern hemisphere departures leave not long after. And when Northern Hemisphere traffic arrives, Southern Hemisphere departures should leave not too long after. Perhaps a 2 hour timegap for long-haul travellers and a 1-1.5 hour transit for regional/intra-continental services. Then MAS could coordinate shift times for staff (reduce non-productive man-hours), maintenance time for A/C, and really offer convenience to passengers. Domestic services ofcourse would continue to operate frequently enough during the day to always permit transit pax and domestic pax convenience.

 

Good to hear that...especially the man-hours improvement should help MH, among other things

 

[Sandeep G 1]

The other useful investment MAS could make is to invest in a dual-type fleet consisting of 777s and 737s for the next few years and then also simultaneously invest in Boeing's AHM to MAXIMISE flight times and minimise downtimes by pre-diagnosis of a/c problems when they're in the air --> less troubleshooting, more productive workforce on the engineering side of things!

 

Perhaps later, 787-8s and -9s as well as 748-Is would find their way into the fleet if their was a need for them!

[KK Lee 5]

 

Minimum transit time for MH at KUL is 2 hours compared to 1 hour for SQ at SIN.

 

 

[BC Tam 2]

Hey all people, we can discuss, suggest, advocate, theorize, hyphothesize and by any other means channel our well thought out (so we would like to believe !) plans for MH to optimize it's operations and consequent profitability - but add in Malaysian politics and politicians, history has shown we will probably end up at square one eventually ! Yeah, pretty pessimistic view but .............

[Jessnor Arif 1]

Since Idris Jala going to give a talk at Taylor's college, CAn someone summarize all the suggestion and slip it up on Mr Jala note book?

[Walter Sim 1]

well, someone represent M-wings, write all down in a piece of paper. When q&a sessions, we just sort of like ask how he thinks about this and that.

 

20 unlimited ramp passes plss....

[Pieter C. 5]

I cannot be there, but would, certainly, like to know about MH's entry into Skyteam and how Mr. Idris Jala think about this (joining an alliance, afterall)

[Naim 6]

April 21, 2007 16:41 PM

 

Miri-Kota Kinabalu-Hong Kong Flight To Take Off On May 3

 

MIRI, April 21 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will start a four times a week flight from here to Hong Kong with a transit in Kota Kinabalu starting May 3, Sarawak Assistant Infrastructure Development and Communication Minister Lee Kim Shin said today.

 

He said although the new route would not be a direct flight it would at least serve as a first step for Miri to become a popular tourist destination, especially for visitors from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and the Philippines.

 

Speaking to reporters after a meeting to discuss MAS Golden Holidays packages with MAS' commercial team here, he said MAS would also offer promotional fares for the new flight and local tourism players were also expected to carry out tourism products promotion in Hong Kong.

 

He said the MAS commercial team had agreed to put the Miri-Kota Kinabalu-Hong Kong flight under their Golden Holidays package after the city had been left out from the list of destinations under the packages introduced earlier this year.

 

Lee, who is also a Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) member and had been fighting for MAS to start such a flight, said the airline's previous arguments that it did not serve a flight to Mulu and that Miri was a non-capital city could not be accepted as reasons for the city to be left out from the package of destinations.

 

-- BERNAMA

 

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_lite.php?id=258013

[BC Tam 2]

Well, this and this sure doesn't gel for sure !!

[Leo 0]

There are 2 point of view that we need to look at.

 

Point of view 1 MAS: For MAS they are are flag carrier so when permission given it has to be MAS then to Air Asia. Because of this MAS has to fullfill government request. Some time MAS has to do even they not willing to do. All this because China gov and My gov air agreement.

 

Point of view 2 Sarawak Government: For gov of Sarawak they need to develop new route to attract people to come to Miri or any point of Sarawak. They sure don't want people to travel via BKI to Eastern Asia or VV. Why because extra cost. If people need to travel via BKI or KCH or KUL, people will not come to those place and have a visit. A transit will need pax to pay more such as admin fee, fuel surchage, and difference air fare plus time to wait for transit.

[Chan CS 0]

In a way this can be a good news, since the direct flight increase the frequency of MAS serving MYY. And for some people prefer MAS the most can have more choices of time.

[KK Lee 5]

Everyone want direct flight to his local airport.

 

Direct flight is a convenient but non essential for tourists e.g. Direct flight from LHR didn’t improve tourists arrival to Langkawi.

 

As a small city can only support limited number of direct flights, and direct flights to spokes cannibalized the hub. At the end, the whole system is fragmented and inefficient.

 

Believe, in years to come, all these airports will remain under utilized, white elephants.

 

[BC Tam 2]

This MYY/BKI/HKG vv thing is I believe an opportunistic piece of PR brilliance - MH just need to continue doing what they have been doing for years, only redesignate the flight numbers for MYY/BKI vv sectors from MH2xxx to MH3xx on certain days !

 

The hardware (734) utilised does BKI-MYY-BKI-HKG-BKI-MYY-BKI circuit (please correct me if wrong) on those days. For this reason Miri travel agents I understand have been able to offer MYY-HKG 'direct' same aircraft connection for a while already.

 

Not sure if pax were required to go through immigration formalities at BKI back then though. Also, whether the MYY/BKI vv sectors are code shared with Dragonair ?

 

BTW, can anyone forsee KCH requesting for additional HKG frequencies, now that MYY has 4x weekly as opposed to KCH's 3x weekly services ?

[Edwin Lau 0]

Not sure if pax were required to go through immigration formalities at BKI back then though. Also, whether the MYY/BKI vv sectors are code shared with Dragonair ?

 

BTW, can anyone forsee KCH requesting for additional HKG frequencies, now that MYY has 4x weekly as opposed to KCH's 3x weekly services ?

 

Not sure bout the MYY-BKI-HKG route will be code-shared with Dragonair but if not mistaken the one for KCH is codeshared with Dragonair. But I personally would love to see dragon air's workhorse in KCH

 

 

 

 

Everyone want direct flight to his local airport.

 

Direct flight is a convenient but non essential for tourists e.g. Direct flight from LHR didn’t improve tourists arrival to Langkawi.

 

As a small city can only support limited number of direct flights, and direct flights to spokes cannibalized the hub. At the end, the whole system is fragmented and inefficient.

 

Believe, in years to come, all these airports will remain under utilized, white elephants.

 

I agree with you KK Lee it doesn't mean direct flights will mean influx of tourist, It still depends on how furious is the promotion and what do you have to offer to attract these tourists. Beaches we have plenty in Malaysia. Lucky for Miri Mulu is not so far away from it. But I would have to say if in terms of offers to tourist Kuching has more than them. We have the culture village, rich with history, few national parks which are close to the city and we also have nice beaches not far from the city. Most of the islands of Sarawak (rare to see islands in Sarawak) are found in Kuching. Bur then again we are not properly promoted so we don't get much tourist.

 

I think the airport that is really under utilised would be Kuching and maybe Bintulu. Especially Kuching which I think the government esp the state government should boost it so that it will not be under utilised. I like what has been commented on NST which I posted here

 

They should work really hard to get more airlines to serve KCH.

[BC Tam 2]

..... but if not mistaken the one for KCH is codeshared with Dragonair .....

The code share is only for BKI/HKG/BKI sectors I believe, KCH/BKI vv is solely MH's operation. For this reason, KCH does not appear on KA's network

[dsim 0]

RBA offering BWN-HKG-BWN for around rm1100 including tax + fuel surcharge for Malaysia Passport holders (w/o Brunei work permit).

 

I doubt MYY-BKI-HKG return can be any cheaper than that. Tried to check online, but MAS site seems to be busy.

 

The only nag about RBA option is one has to drive from Miri to BWN, which is not a problem for most cost concious leisure travellers. Moreover the MAS option has a stopover at BKI.

[Kenneth T 0]

RBA offering BWN-HKG-BWN for around rm1100 including tax + fuel surcharge for Malaysia Passport holders (w/o Brunei work permit).

 

I doubt MYY-BKI-HKG return can be any cheaper than that. Tried to check online, but MAS site seems to be busy.

 

The only nag about RBA option is one has to drive from Miri to BWN, which is not a problem for most cost concious leisure travellers. Moreover the MAS option has a stopover at BKI.

 

Exactly....and somemore given the low load on off peak from BKI-HKG....is this MYY-BKI-HKG viable? MAS should be free from political influence....if it really wanna be profitable...the BKI-HKG ticket alone cost around RM1,600++ during off peak.

[BC Tam 2]

Like I tried to explain earlier (post #19) this MYY-BKI-HKG is an 'experiment' that will not cost MH anything extra (too simplistic thinking perhaps ?!), they are already physically flying the route as such. Fact is they have flown MYY-BKI and BKI-HKG for so many years, there must be something there to be able to sustain the services. Either that or they are obligated to anyway !