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MASwings to Terminate 6 Routes by 2018

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Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2017/11/08/maswings-to-cease-operations-for-six-routes-by-2018/

 

Summary:-

MASwings will discontinue 6 routes by 2018 to give way to commercial airlines (ie. MH, AK, OD), after a study by MAVCOM. Gomen will consider airlines that apply for Sarawak/Sabah RAS operations. Said routes are:

1. BKI-SDK

2. BKI-TWU

3. BKI-MYY

4. KCH-MYY

5. KCH-BKI

6. KCH-MYY

This might also explain, for example, the sudden surge of KCH-MYY flights by AK from 17 weekly to 29 weekly effective 26 Dec 2017.


 

6. KCH-MYY

 

Can't find edit button.

Apologies, this should be KCH-SBW.

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AirAsia can easily absorb these routes because their cost structure is very low and they have economics of scale. May or may not be profitable but whats better than being a monopoly when your competitors are not even interested

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All the destination pairs effected are major cities and towns in Sabah and Sarawak. Hardly "rural", which MASwings should be serving. So this termination is much welcome and a good business decision for all parties.

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I don't understand MASWIngs' business model - their fares are way too expensive!

East Malaysian had not been able to understand for a decade already!

 

Believe Malaysia Airlines need to be backed for those sectors that it had handed to MASwings only, else we would be dependent on Air Asia already.

 

Also time for Malindo Air moved some surplus ATR here!

 

But mind you, no BKI-SBW-BKI which sibu folks had been demanded AK to be backed for years.

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Problems are most of these routes are seasonal. BKI-SDK,BKI-MYY too many flights a day even for ak 80+ pob and 20+ pax on maswings on weekdays. You also have a problem with pricing MASWings flight fare are most of the time more expensive than MAS. From what i heard the pricing is set by state gov which isn't even helping the rural community at all. Then problem arises during holiday seasons that it gets too full and people dont have any seats to go back to. The only sector that doesn't make sense is KCH-MYY believe load over here is good.

 

Believe the cut will be good for AK and MAS as they'll be able to absorb more pax and state no longer subsidizing majority of the atr operations. The downside is people lose the frequency based flights they'll be rolling the dice more on holiday seasons when difficulty in getting seats.


East Malaysian had not been able to understand for a decade already!

Believe Malaysia Airlines need to be backed for those sectors that it had handed to MASwings only, else we would be dependent on Air Asia already.

Also time for Malindo Air moved some surplus ATR here!

But mind you, no BKI-SBW-BKI which sibu folks had been demanded AK to be backed for years.

Malindo did recruitment and study analysis on atr operations. However they pulled off as load is uneven and lower than the peninsula operations and if they open atr flights it would not be replacing maswings sector but opening new regional routes to kalimantan and southern philipinnes.

Edited by jahur

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Maswings fares are exhorbitant (even for the so called subsidized RAS routes served by the Twin Otters and the people traveling these routes are precisely those who cannot afford to pay commercial rates). For a return trip from Kuching to Bario via Miri, I can go to Perth! ::80::

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Sigh ! This after it was announced the ATRs will be 'refurbished' by, well, this month in fact :rolleyes:

Wonder what they are gonna do with the surplus birds now ?

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read long ago that MAB plans to do 737 crew stations at BKI. Why dont they put some ex-FY,non BSI 737 under Maswings branding, just to cater for flight between Borneo airports.

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read long ago that MAB plans to do 737 crew stations at BKI. Why dont they put some ex-FY,non BSI 737 under Maswings branding, just to cater for flight between Borneo airports.

 

 

Problems are most of these routes are seasonal. BKI-SDK,BKI-MYY too many flights a day even for ak 80+ pob and 20+ pax on maswings on weekdays.

 

80+ POB is unprofitable for 738 or A320.

 

The concept of having aircraft cater for peak season while losing during the rest of the year is unsustainable.

Edited by KK Lee

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80+ POB is unprofitable for 738 or A320.

 

The concept of having aircraft cater for peak season while losing during the rest of the year is unsustainable.

Hence why state was subsidizing the previous ops to keep air connectivity previously to maintain the frequency. As for east to west bound of Sabah the terrain road itself is so bad 8hours on express bus for sdk and 13 hours to twu. Building a new highway to tawau cuts through got rejected as it'll slide beside bypass or slice through danum valley which is a no touch zone, Kinabatangan highway got rejected by foreign tree huggers association. Another account to take on is weather intensity on borneo crocker range is quite severe during monsoon season. For inter sabah flights the ATR has to outclimbed quickly over the hills which itself isnt capable of doing so during peak periods only the 737 and a320 are capable of that and also facing icing conditions most of the time when thunderstorms are in vicinity which atr itself has a dodgy record overseas. Believe regional jets are the key for ak, od and mag for these sectors.

Edited by jahur

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Sigh ! This after it was announced the ATRs will be 'refurbished' by, well, this month in fact :rolleyes:

Wonder what they are gonna do with the surplus birds now ?

Sell them to Nam Air...

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Hence why state was subsidizing the previous ops to keep air connectivity previously to maintain the frequency. As for east to west bound of Sabah the terrain road itself is so bad 8hours on express bus for sdk and 13 hours to twu. Building a new highway to tawau cuts through got rejected as it'll slide beside bypass or slice through danum valley which is a no touch zone, Kinabatangan highway got rejected by foreign tree huggers association. Another account to take on is weather intensity on borneo crocker range is quite severe during monsoon season. For inter sabah flights the ATR has to outclimbed quickly over the hills which itself isnt capable of doing so during peak periods only the 737 and a320 are capable of that and also facing icing conditions most of the time when thunderstorms are in vicinity which atr itself has a dodgy record overseas. Believe regional jets are the key for ak, od and mag for these sectors.

 

Those walk in the corridor of power is never to known to consider tree huggers opinion; otherwise, most primary forest will still be in existence. On road transport development, one could only blame on a certain political doctrine to keep the people poor, so that they will depend on handout and feeding or otherwise known as fixed deposit in the trade.

 

Unless aircraft is tropicalized for mild weather, believe aircraft are certified to operate in much harsher weather condition e.g. winter in northern Europe/Canada.

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Those walk in the corridor of power is never to known to consider tree huggers opinion; otherwise, most primary forest will still be in existence. On road transport development, one could only blame on a certain political doctrine to keep the people poor, so that they will depend on handout and feeding or otherwise known as fixed deposit in the trade.

 

Unless aircraft is tropicalized for mild weather, believe aircraft are certified to operate in much harsher weather condition e.g. winter in northern Europe/Canada.

While building roads seems to be the better answer you would have to look the topography especially east to west roads. The kinabatangan project was almost greenlighted until foreign naturalist appose it as it will intefere with the local wildlife. People over there got very pissed some of the wildlife killings involving poisoning elephants recently have been attributed to pissed farmers and locals that have been denied urbanization and yet the animals encroached their farms.

 

As for aircraft the poorly designed ATR Manual state if anti-ice appliance did not de-ice the wings during icing condition which most of the time happens on rainy season you have to descent for lower cruising altitude and in cases for e.g SDK-BKI sector to avoid weather you would have to deviate far north to near kudat but there are cases where kudat itself is surrounded by weather, pax will be going in for a very bumpy ride or worse off flight delayed significantly. Then you'll see the AK/MH flight took off instead then locals will go"itu airasia dah tak off ini maswing mengapa delay sama ke kk jugak" as it could cruise way higher and have proper de-icing mechanism. I'm saying the ATR itself while very fuel efficient is not a very sturdy plane when compared to the fokker 50/Q400. There's little to no ATR operations in North America due to icing cases while other tundra country like russia have many cases and incidents due to icing and resort to instructing to crew to cruise at lower altitude and also to take note Borneo itself is a very adverse weather inducer, tropic thunderstorms and very wide spread compared to other regions.

Edited by jahur

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East Malaysian had not been able to understand for a decade already!

 

Believe Malaysia Airlines need to be backed for those sectors that it had handed to MASwings only, else we would be dependent on Air Asia already.

 

Also time for Malindo Air moved some surplus ATR here!

 

But mind you, no BKI-SBW-BKI which sibu folks had been demanded AK to be backed for years.

I couldn't understand it too. Often travel on MH MYY-KCH vv. and the tickets are still cheaper than MASwings when you include taxes.

 

Problems are most of these routes are seasonal. BKI-SDK,BKI-MYY too many flights a day even for ak 80+ pob and 20+ pax on maswings on weekdays. You also have a problem with pricing MASWings flight fare are most of the time more expensive than MAS. From what i heard the pricing is set by state gov which isn't even helping the rural community at all. Then problem arises during holiday seasons that it gets too full and people dont have any seats to go back to. The only sector that doesn't make sense is KCH-MYY believe load over here is good.

 

Believe the cut will be good for AK and MAS as they'll be able to absorb more pax and state no longer subsidizing majority of the atr operations. The downside is people lose the frequency based flights they'll be rolling the dice more on holiday seasons when difficulty in getting seats.

Malindo did recruitment and study analysis on atr operations. However they pulled off as load is uneven and lower than the peninsula operations and if they open atr flights it would not be replacing maswings sector but opening new regional routes to kalimantan and southern philipinnes.

If they're removing BKI-MYY, I'm not sure if they will remove BKI-LBU-MYY as there are few flights daily too, and the loads were bad, at least from my memory. I think most travel on MASwings only when AK times for BKI-MYY (1-2 daily) doesn't suit them.

You're right about KCH-MYY. Loads are almost always exceptionally good if you compare it with other routes. I stay in both Miri and Kuching, so I travel between the 2 very often. Flights, no matter MH, AK or MASwings, are more than 80% full, MASwings flight can be 100% full, even on weekdays.

 

Maswings fares are exhorbitant (even for the so called subsidized RAS routes served by the Twin Otters and the people traveling these routes are precisely those who cannot afford to pay commercial rates). For a return trip from Kuching to Bario via Miri, I can go to Perth! ::80::

Bought ~RM800 KCH-MYY-BBN vv. a while ago. Also bought KCH-KUL-PER with half that price before on AK/D7.

 

read long ago that MAB plans to do 737 crew stations at BKI. Why dont they put some ex-FY,non BSI 737 under Maswings branding, just to cater for flight between Borneo airports.

There were plans by both Sarawak/Sabah Gomen to do so. But plans will remain as plans, never to materialise.

 

 

Those walk in the corridor of power is never to known to consider tree huggers opinion; otherwise, most primary forest will still be in existence. On road transport development, one could only blame on a certain political doctrine to keep the people poor, so that they will depend on handout and feeding or otherwise known as fixed deposit in the trade.

 

Unless aircraft is tropicalized for mild weather, believe aircraft are certified to operate in much harsher weather condition e.g. winter in northern Europe/Canada.

Can we see CS series here in the future? May TF will lease the rumoured CS300 and base it in KCH/MYY/BKI? :acute: (wishful thinking)

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While building roads seems to be the better answer you would have to look the topography especially east to west roads. The kinabatangan project was almost greenlighted until foreign naturalist appose it as it will intefere with the local wildlife. People over there got very pissed some of the wildlife killings involving poisoning elephants recently have been attributed to pissed farmers and locals that have been denied urbanization and yet the animals encroached their farms.

 

As for aircraft the poorly designed ATR Manual state if anti-ice appliance did not de-ice the wings during icing condition which most of the time happens on rainy season you have to descent for lower cruising altitude and in cases for e.g SDK-BKI sector to avoid weather you would have to deviate far north to near kudat but there are cases where kudat itself is surrounded by weather, pax will be going in for a very bumpy ride or worse off flight delayed significantly. Then you'll see the AK/MH flight took off instead as it could cruise way higher and have proper de-icing mechanism. I'm saying the ATR itself while very fuel efficient is not a very sturdy plane when compared to the fokker 50/Q400. There's little to no ATR operations in North America due to icing cases while other tundra country like russia have many cases and incidents due to icing and resort to instructing to crew to cruise at lower altitude and also to take note Borneo itself is a very adverse weather inducer, tropic thunderstorms and very wide spread compared to other regions.

 

Unless the funds is from ADB or World Bank, foreign naturalists have little or no influence over those walk in the corridor of power. Further, there are ways and means to mitigate impact on wildlife.

 

If road and railway could be built in Tibet, Sabah topography won't be a major obstacle. It is a matter of priority and budget.

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I couldn't understand it too. Often travel on MH MYY-KCH vv. and the tickets are still cheaper than MASwings when you include taxes.

 

If they're removing BKI-MYY, I'm not sure if they will remove BKI-LBU-MYY as there are few flights daily too, and the loads were bad, at least from my memory. I think most travel on MASwings only when AK times for BKI-MYY (1-2 daily) doesn't suit them.

You're right about KCH-MYY. Loads are almost always exceptionally good if you compare it with other routes. I stay in both Miri and Kuching, so I travel between the 2 very often. Flights, no matter MH, AK or MASwings, are more than 80% full, MASwings flight can be 100% full, even on weekdays.

 

Bought ~RM800 KCH-MYY-BBN vv. a while ago. Also bought KCH-KUL-PER with half that price before on AK/D7.

 

There were plans by both Sarawak/Sabah Gomen to do so. But plans will remain as plans, never to materialise.

 

Can we see CS series here in the future? May TF will lease the rumoured CS300 and base it in KCH/MYY/BKI? :acute: (wishful thinking)

BKI-MYY is mostly mixed bag. I have a classmate who says most of the flights are empty. AFAIK the profiting atr routes are Kuching to miri, miri to mulu(surprisingly due to rising influx of chinese tourist), kuching to bintulu, kota kinabalu to lahad datu, kota kinabalu to sibu. Believed the terminating routes mentioned in the article by transport ministry is due to the fact they're no longer subsidizing them and believe ak/mag or od should take up the route and operate them commercially. The funny thing they mentioned the load on the terminating routes have a load factor of 86% when most of the time they're barely half full except for kch-myy. Either the minister does not know what his talking about or his simply taking data from holiday seasons or during the current frequency reduction imposed by maswings.

The main concern now after the termination is for ak or mag or lion group to find the right aircraft. The ATR is not a very good platform while the b738/a320 is excess capacity. Think they'll have to take a look at the embraer 135,175 or bombardier cs300 most the airports in sabah sarawak can take jets now.

Edited by jahur

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BKI-MYY is mostly mixed bag. I have a classmate who says most of the flights are empty. AFAIK the profiting atr routes are Kuching to miri, miri to mulu(surprisingly due to rising influx of chinese tourist), kuching to bintulu, kota kinabalu to lahad datu, kota kinabalu to sibu. Believed the terminating routes mentioned in the article by transport ministry is due to the fact they're no longer subsidizing them and believe ak/mag or od should take up the route and operate them commercially. The funny thing they mentioned the load on the terminating routes have a load factor of 86% when most of the time they're barely half full except for kch-myy. Either the minister does not know what his talking about or his simply taking data from holiday seasons or during the current frequency reduction imposed by maswings.

 

The main concern now after the termination is for ak or mag or lion group to find the right aircraft. The ATR is not a very good platform while the b738/a320 is excess capacity. Think they'll have to take a look at the embraer 135,175 or bombardier cs300 most the airports in sabah sarawak can take jets now.

I believe MASwings' MYY-KCH-MYY are making money mainly due to the fact that MAS do not fly that sectors at night anymore and some businessman do day trip to and fro both cities. So timing fit their purpose. Or when AK price is higher than MASwings offer price when the travellers need frills.

 

Yeah, if B737 or ATR or A320 cant work; get some new types of the right size that fit East Malaysian market. Most importantly, connectivity cannot be lost.

 

But i doubt AK cannot make it work generally. They should be seeing the potential, else it wouldnt be upgrading from 7x weekly during the good old days till a whopping 29x weekly from 26 Dec for MYY-KCH-MYY.

 

Same goes for BTU and SBW city pair from KCH, 3x daily should be a sufficient connectivity. If no demand, I don't see TF will want to increase frequencies.

I couldn't understand it too. Often travel on MH MYY-KCH vv. and the tickets are still cheaper than MASwings when you include taxes.

 

If they're removing BKI-MYY, I'm not sure if they will remove BKI-LBU-MYY as there are few flights daily too, and the loads were bad, at least from my memory. I think most travel on MASwings only when AK times for BKI-MYY (1-2 daily) doesn't suit them.

You're right about KCH-MYY. Loads are almost always exceptionally good if you compare it with other routes. I stay in both Miri and Kuching, so I travel between the 2 very often. Flights, no matter MH, AK or MASwings, are more than 80% full, MASwings flight can be 100% full, even on weekdays.

 

Bought ~RM800 KCH-MYY-BBN vv. a while ago. Also bought KCH-KUL-PER with half that price before on AK/D7.

 

There were plans by both Sarawak/Sabah Gomen to do so. But plans will remain as plans, never to materialise.

 

Can we see CS series here in the future? May TF will lease the rumoured CS300 and base it in KCH/MYY/BKI? :acute: (wishful thinking)

Yes, AK MYY-BKI-MYY timing is quite not conveience honestly. Wonders would there be any frequencies upsizing after MASwings pulled out. I remembered during the initial days when MAS fully passed this route to them, mostly ate direct flights; now ample are routed via LBU, so guess Jahur is correct also, load is a mixed bag. But dont think MYY-LBU-MYY will be much affected, is not on the axed list and yet they still have the demand from the oil and gas sectors.

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I know some of my colleagues have general dislike for ATR planes because they are not jetplanes. I am not sure if because of the slower speed or because of smaller cabin width.

 

Went to Tawau few weeks ago by road - The journey from KK to Nabawan was quite OK, if not because of the trucks, any passenger car can travel up to 100km/h as the road condition is generally quite good. But as soon as you cross the deeply forested areas at the vicinity of Maliau all the way to Kalabakan, the road condition becomes so bad that you wish that you are go to Tawau on an airplane instead.

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I know some of my colleagues have general dislike for ATR planes because they are not jetplanes. I am not sure if because of the slower speed or because of smaller cabin width.

 

Went to Tawau few weeks ago by road - The journey from KK to Nabawan was quite OK, if not because of the trucks, any passenger car can travel up to 100km/h as the road condition is generally quite good. But as soon as you cross the deeply forested areas at the vicinity of Maliau all the way to Kalabakan, the road condition becomes so bad that you wish that you are go to Tawau on an airplane instead.

Apart from jetplane is superior over turboprop stigmata by the average joe. The atr does not have a proper APU they have some called hotel mode where the right engine is running but on prop brake to prevent prop spinning. Then theres a problem during baggage loading hotel mode has to be switched off as it generate very hot air that will flow to the baggage handler and ground crew so its safety and health hazard. Problem also is the hotel mode air that comes out to the cabin is usually warmer than the jet aircrafts on apu. So all these taken to account most of the time passenger will board the plane without any air conditioning right until before engine startup.

 

Plus the atr while it can to through any turbulence is not as smooth as the fokker or q400 hence many nervous flyers wont enjoy the atr trip. The only thing atr really triumph over the fokker 50 and q400 is the fuel burn. Imagine cruising fuel burn rate is near up the same as an b737-800 taxing on the taxiway.

Edited by jahur

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THIS IS ABSURD!! Forcing MASwings to cease operating the flights to give way to commercial airlines? example Kch-Myy: MH 2 flights daily (7am and 3pm), AK 2 to 3 flights daily depending on the day (8.35am, 2.05pm, 7.35pm). Sometimes the fares for Kuching-Miri on AK and MH can range between RM350 to RM1000 one way on ECONOMY CLASS! When those two airlines ticket prices as expensive as f***, MASwings came to my rescue two times with their promotion fare which is below RM200 for the Kuching-Miri sector.

 

Another example: Kuching-Sibu a 30 minute flight by AK A320. That route is more suitable for turboprops with low fuel burn rate like atr.

 

Looks like I have to endure 12 hour bus to go back Miri through the Pain Borneo Highway(it does cost back pain..lol) when the fare price of those two airline Kch-miri e.a.f.

Edited by GeO

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Plus the atr while it can to through any turbulence is not as smooth as the fokker or q400 hence many nervous flyers wont enjoy the atr trip. The only thing atr really triumph over the fokker 50 and q400 is the fuel burn. Imagine cruising fuel burn rate is near up the same as an b737-800 taxing on the taxiway.

If atr fuel burn is as low as claimed, every additional pax/revenue goes straight (almost all) to the bottom line. It make sense to fill atr to the max.

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If atr fuel burn is as low as claimed, every additional pax/revenue goes straight (almost all) to the bottom line. It make sense to fill atr to the max.

Here's another problem with the very low fuel cost and operation cost the fare should be low + subsidization but it is the opposite for Maswings flights are most of the time expensive unless MH and AK flights are off the charts on holidays. Certain % of Maswings fare pricing is controlled and set by state as if they're trying to recover that subsidization cost. Then they also got fussy when Maswings introduced the better equipped ATR72-600 claiming its waste of money over the old 500 series your MAS is trying to give off a long term investment in hard product to MASwings and state doesnt give a F%%K and overcharges your tickets on old equipment.

 

Then you have crybabies minister MP Kinabatangan, previously fella created a big uproar when Maswings decided to reduce the SDK-BKI frequency as 2 of the daily flights have like 3-7 pax only and he so happens to be the one using that flight time. Fella went and complained and silly Maswings accommodated his demands by reopening the flight a month later. This is not the only case as few other MPs have been doing the same and ur regular RAS airline abide to the loss making operation as if state gives a big chunk of money for them when its only marginal subsidization to their fuel cost per flight vs what 2-3 fare paying pax its embarrassing . Flights even have to re-timed to accommodate them. Things like this is whats bleeding the turboprop operations in borneo.

 

If you look at the states project investment in Sabah(not sure about Sarawak) you know many of the developments are half past six. Apart from RAS and turboprop services sectors from agriculture up to structural infrastructure and ICT+ Desa+ ladang lahad datu is down the drain. Instead of channeling reserves for that they spent more on offshore bankings and investments and so many hoo-hahs names onboard the bod. Then every session state goes all crybaby saying federal tak bagi cukup untuk developing Sabah when state has big allocation for it.

Edited by jahur

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