[flee]

KUALA LUMPUR, July 30 -- Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will offer two additional direct flights from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney and three new flights from Kuala Lumpur to Brisbane effective Oct 31, 2010.

The two new flights to Sydney will depart Tuesdays and Thursdays at 9.00am and arrive at 7.55pm.

Collectively, MAS would offer 14 weekly flights to Sydney, said the airline in a statement Friday.

Customers will also enjoy five weekly flights to Brisbane except for Tuesday and Thursday.

The three additional flights will depart Kuala Lumpur every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 9.40am and arrive in Brisbane at 7.55pm.

Tickets are now available for purchase at www.malaysiaairlines.com

Malaysia Airlines Senior General Manager Commercial Strategy Dr Amin Khan said,"We are delighted to boost our services to Australia. Both Brisbane and Sydney have shown growth with an average load factor of 73 per cent, four per cent higher than last year."

Apart from Sydney and Brisbane, Malaysia Airlines also connects to Melbourne 14 times weekly, Perth 10 times weekly and Adelaide four times a week.

-- BERNAMA

[Ruiz Razy]

Sounds like the good old times of wide variety of frequencies are slowly coming back!

Let's hope that it remains sustainable in demand at least. Of course ideally, twice daily OPs to all Aussies State capitals ( including ADL and even DRW) would be the minimum in ensuring MH's KUL as a good "distribution" hub to Australia.

[KK Lee]

Twice daily to major Aussie cities is critical to support the Kangaroo route. Believe MH need also to increase major European cities e.g. AMS, FRA, FCO, CDG, etc to double daily else one of the ex-Aussie flight is likely to be below breakeven.

As MH has changed its schedule a number of times over the year, it will take sometime for travelers to aware of MH offering.

:drinks:

[Josh T]

KK Lee, on 30 July 2010 - 06:25 PM, said:

Twice daily to major Aussie cities is critical to support the Kangaroo route. Believe MH need also to increase major European cities e.g. AMS, FRA, FCO, CDG, etc to double daily else one of the ex-Aussie flight is likely to be below breakeven.

As MH has changed its schedule a number of times over the year, it will take sometime for travelers to aware of MH offering.

:drinks:

To effectively support and be a major player on the Kangaroo route, MH needs the double daily flights to SYD and MEL, and at least daily to BNE, PER and ADL. Fliths to LHR should continue to be double daily and the remainder of their European destinations should be daily.

[Johan Z]

LHR, CDG and AMS are served daily. FRA 5X weekly and FCO poorly 3x weekly. Maybe MH needs to look at DME and return to ZRH and MAN to gain more demand from Australia-bound traffic.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli]

This is long overdue! SYD shouldn't be tagged along with BNE in the first place, period. Just see how bad the damage of this routing has affected MH's market share on the Kangaroo route, particularly in SYD. Actually this news have been posted in fellow MalaysianWings member Jim Liu's blog since 15 July 2010.

Quote

As per 15JUL10 GDS timetable display, Malaysia Airlines has updated some of its planned International operation for 2010/11 Winter season.

However, only the timetable section in GDS has been updated, not its own inventory/availability system as of this moment. These should be gradually updated in the coming weeks. There will be a follow-up post if changes noted below did not occur.

Proposed changes are:

Kuala Lumpur – Bangalore Increase from 5 weekly to Daily

Kuala Lumpur – Brisbane 5 weekly A330 service terminator service, replacing tag-on service with Sydney
MH135 KUL0900 – 1915BNE 330 x24
MH134 BNE2350 – 0610+1KUL 330 x24

Kuala Lumpur – Delhi Increase from 7 to 12 weekly. New flights operating with 737-800 aircraft during daytime
MH172 KUL0840 – 1200DEL 738 x24
MH190 KUL1850 – 2150DEL 330 D
MH173 DEL1245 – 2035KUL 738 x24
MH191 DEL2310 – 0700+1KUL 330 D

Kuala Lumpur – Colombo 5 weekly 737-800 terminator service, replacing tag-on service with Male
MH179 KUL2320 – 0020+1CMB 738 x27
MH178 CMB0120 – 0725KUL 738 x13

Kuala Lumpur – Male Daily 737-800 terminator service (increase from 3 weekly terminator), replacing 4 weekly tag-on service with Colombo
MH177 KUL2150 – 2310MLE 738 D
MH176 MLE0001 – 0720KUL 738

Kuala Lumpur – Seoul Incheon eff 15NOV10 Nonstop service increase from 5 weekly to Daily, existing 1-stop via Kota Kinabalu will be split (see also below)
MH066 KUL2330 – 0645+1ICN 330 D
MH067 ICN1100 – 1650KUL 330 D

Kuala Lumpur – Sydney 2 Daily terminator service
MH141 KUL0900 – 1955SYD 777 D
MH123 KUL2240 – 0935+1SYD 744 D
MH122 SYD1540 – 2050KUL 744 D
MH140 SYD2155 – 0320+1KUL 777 D

Kota Kinabalu – Seoul Incheon eff 15NOV10 NEW 3 weekly terminator service with 737-800, increase to 4 weekly from 15JAN11
MH062 BKI2330 – 0540+1ICN 738 246
MH063 ICN0945 – 1415BKI 738 357
BKI departure Day x147 / ICN departure Day x125 eff 15JAN11

At the moment, BNE is served 5 weekly via SYD and 2 weekly non stop from KUL with B772. Does this 2 weekly non stop B772 flight will stay in the new schedule? Meaning there will be 7 weekly flights KUL-BNE vv, 5 A333s and 2 B772s.

There are also some other changes, which was announced on 21 June 2010:

Quote

Malaysia Airlines from mid-July 2010 is increasing service on following routes. Note some of these were supposed to be launched prior to the end of June 2010 but was postponed.

Kuala Lumpur – Hyderbad Increase from 4 to 5 weekly eff 24JUL10
MH198 KUL2215 – 2355HYD 738 x13
MH199 HYD0045 – 0735KUL 738 x24

Kuala Lumpur – Manila 1 Daily A330 service will be replaced by 2 Daily Boeing 737-800. (Increase originally planned eff 28MAR10)
MH704 KUL1015 – 1405MNL 738 D
MH802 KUL1340 – 1730MNL 738 D
MH705 MNL1505 – 1840KUL 738 D
MH803 MNL1830 – 2205KUL 738 D
MH704/705 currently operates on Day 136, MH802/803 Day x136

Regardless, things are improving for MH most definitely.

[Sing Yew]

Mohd Azizul Ramli, on 30 July 2010 - 11:58 PM, said:

This is long overdue! SYD shouldn't be tagged along with BNE in the first place, period. Just see how bad the damage of this routing has affected MH's market share on the Kangaroo route, particularly in SYD. Actually this news have been posted in fellow MalaysianWings member Jim Liu's blog since 15 July 2010.


At the moment, BNE is served 5 weekly via SYD and 2 weekly non stop from KUL with B772. Does this 2 weekly non stop B772 flight will stay in the new schedule? Meaning there will be 7 weekly flights KUL-BNE vv, 5 A333s and 2 B772s.

There are also some other changes, which was announced on 21 June 2010:


Regardless, things are improving for MH most definitely.

The rickety old A333s that do not have PTVs in Economy. That will make them look inferior in comparison to competitor airlines ex-BNE to Asia - SQ, TG, BI, CX, CI, BR etc.

[Mohd Azizul Ramli]

For the time being. 5 new A333s will be arriving next year, the first of which in April 2011.

[KK Lee]

Josh T, on 30 July 2010 - 07:42 PM, said:

To effectively support and be a major player on the Kangaroo route, MH needs the double daily flights to SYD and MEL, and at least daily to BNE, PER and ADL. Fliths to LHR should continue to be double daily and the remainder of their European destinations should be daily.

If MH daily flights to Europe depart around midnight, those travel to Europe by late evening departure from Aussie (e.g. MH134 from BNE, MH140 from SYD) will face over 12 hours transit time at KUL. Hence, late evening departure from Aussie will be unpopular for Kangaroo route. Unless MH can feed late evening departure from Aussie to regional else will be low yield or below breakeven.

It is a puzzle why MH140 arrive KUL at 0320 hour? Since MH141 terminate at SYD, why can’t MH140 depart a few hours later, so that transit time at KUL will be shorter :sorry: Further, ERL won’t operate until 5am :sorry:

On the other hand, if MH has smaller aircraft like 767 or 787, there won’t be over capacity for MH to offer seamless transit on Kangaroo route.

:drinks:

This post has been edited by KK Lee: 31 July 2010 - 12:44 AM

[Josh T]

KK Lee, on 31 July 2010 - 02:38 AM, said:

If MH daily flights to Europe depart around midnight, those travel to Europe by late evening departure from Aussie (e.g. MH134 from BNE, MH140 from SYD) will face over 12 hours transit time at KUL. Hence, late evening departure from Aussie will be unpopular for Kangaroo route. Unless MH can feed late evening departure from Aussie to regional else will be low yield or below breakeven.

It is a puzzle why MH140 arrive KUL at 0320 hour? Since MH141 terminate at SYD, why can’t MH140 depart a few hours later, so that transit time at KUL will be shorter :sorry: Further, ERL won’t operate until 5am :sorry:

On the other hand, if MH has smaller aircraft like 767 or 787, there won’t be over capacity for MH to offer seamless transit on Kangaroo route.

:drinks:

I'm sure MH would love to leave a bit later from SYD for MH 140 but there's a curfew at the airport. All flights must stop by 11pm. You don't want to leave to close to that time because if there are any delays and you hit that 11pm curfew, you are stuck at the airport until 6am the next day. Te flight currently leaves around 9:20pm. Maybe they can delay departure until about 10pm but I wouldn't go any later than that. I've been on that flight where the weather was really bad and we couldn't take off. Luckily the weather got better and we managed to leave just before 11pm. The captain said that we were lucky to make it out by 11pm or else we would've had to stay the night!!

[Ruiz Razy]

KK Lee, on 31 July 2010 - 12:38 AM, said:

If MH daily flights to Europe depart around midnight, those travel to Europe by late evening departure from Aussie (e.g. MH134 from BNE, MH140 from SYD) will face over 12 hours transit time at KUL. Hence, late evening departure from Aussie will be unpopular for Kangaroo route. Unless MH can feed late evening departure from Aussie to regional else will be low yield or below breakeven.

It is a puzzle why MH140 arrive KUL at 0320 hour? Since MH141 terminate at SYD, why can’t MH140 depart a few hours later, so that transit time at KUL will be shorter :sorry: Further, ERL won’t operate until 5am :sorry:

On the other hand, if MH has smaller aircraft like 767 or 787, there won’t be over capacity for MH to offer seamless transit on Kangaroo route.

:drinks:

Yeap, 0320 arrival does not work well @ KUL , KUL is not DXB. Earliest "good and convenient" arrival should be from 0530 onwards, just nice to catch the 0600 train and be at KUL Hotel/home by 0700.

The 767/787 argument further supports for MH to acquire Dreamliners ASAP.

[KK Lee]

Josh T, on 31 July 2010 - 07:41 AM, said:

I'm sure MH would love to leave a bit later from SYD for MH 140 but there's a curfew at the airport. All flights must stop by 11pm. You don't want to leave to close to that time because if there are any delays and you hit that 11pm curfew, you are stuck at the airport until 6am the next day. Te flight currently leaves around 9:20pm. Maybe they can delay departure until about 10pm but I wouldn't go any later than that. I've been on that flight where the weather was really bad and we couldn't take off. Luckily the weather got better and we managed to leave just before 11pm. The captain said that we were lucky to make it out by 11pm or else we would've had to stay the night!!

Then MH should consider to reschedule MH140 to depart SYD in the morning like SQ. With afternoon arrival to KUL, MH can target transit pax to South Asia.

Given CNS and DRW is not served by SQ, EK, or EY, believe MH should give CNS and DRW a shot with either 738 or A332.

Btw, how did you find 3/4am arrival to KUL?

:drinks:

This post has been edited by KK Lee: 31 July 2010 - 11:10 AM

[Josh T]

Actually, the 738s would be perfect for DRW flights but will it be cost-effective competing with Jetstar and the other LCCs?

I also agree that the overnight flight of MH140 should be re-scheduled to leave in the mornings. It will provide much better connections to regional and domestic destinations.

[Waiping]

Quote

Kota Kinabalu – Seoul Incheon eff 15NOV10 NEW 3 weekly terminator service with 737-800, increase to 4 weekly from 15JAN11
MH062 BKI2330 – 0540+1ICN 738 246
MH063 ICN0945 – 1415BKI 738 357
BKI departure Day x147 / ICN departure Day x125 eff 15JAN11

Aiyah, downgrade equipment. :(

[flee]

Looks like BKI is going to be the MH's B738 international hub as it tries to improve East Malaysia's connections to the world. Previously it was not economic to operate international flights using wide bodies due to lower demand. So the B738 gives MH something they never had before - a good way to expand the MH network.

[KK Lee]

flee, on 01 August 2010 - 09:51 AM, said:

Looks like BKI is going to be the MH's B738 international hub as it tries to improve East Malaysia's connections to the world. Previously it was not economic to operate international flights using wide bodies due to lower demand. So the B738 gives MH something they never had before - a good way to expand the MH network.

Given relatively small demand, it is realistic to use 734/738 for regional from BKI. Believe MH should establish BKI to serve Southern Philippines, Kalimantan and Menado.

:drinks:

[Ruiz Razy]

KK Lee, on 01 August 2010 - 10:19 AM, said:

Given relatively small demand, it is realistic to use 734/738 for regional from BKI. Believe MH should establish BKI to serve Southern Philippines, Kalimantan and Menado.

:drinks:

This 738 concept base @ BKI sounds a good step forward in reinforcing BKI; once the load is established, wide body aircraft will be able to operate on regular basis. Tho' this may happen "later"

In fact, similar lines may be worth exploring for other two key hubs ( KCH and PEN) and this can be extended to other ports of call to regional points (i.e. LGK - HKG ??), should there is a need.

[Lemuel Tay]

I am really sad about this - had booked and paid for the direct KUL-BNE-KUL flights on MH134/135 in Golden Club Class (Business Class) for Dec 2010, returning Jan 2011. Now I find the equipment has been changed to non lie-flat A330-300s instead of the B777-200. This is a downgrade! Not Happy Jan!

It's cold comfort saying the airplanes will be replaced with new A333s starting April 2011 onwards. When I booked, it was on the B777, which is the least one should expect, seeing this is an overnight flight of 8 hours.

[Josh T]

Lemuel Tay, on 08 August 2010 - 04:06 AM, said:

I am really sad about this - had booked and paid for the direct KUL-BNE-KUL flights on MH134/135 in Golden Club Class (Business Class) for Dec 2010, returning Jan 2011. Now I find the equipment has been changed to non lie-flat A330-300s instead of the B777-200. This is a downgrade! Not Happy Jan!

It's cold comfort saying the airplanes will be replaced with new A333s starting April 2011 onwards. When I booked, it was on the B777, which is the least one should expect, seeing this is an overnight flight of 8 hours.

I feel your pain, man! The old A330-300s are not good in business class. I'd be upset and Jan would not be happy about that!!

[Lemuel Tay]

Josh T, on 08 August 2010 - 06:44 PM, said:

I feel your pain, man! The old A330-300s are not good in business class. I'd be upset and Jan would not be happy about that!!

Arrgh! As if to "taunt" me today, I just checked the MH website with the same itinerary BNE-KUL-LGK-KUL-BNE and the pricing came up with AUD$4777.84 - it's that 777 again!

BTW you experts all, how probable is it that MH will allocate the newly ordered A330s to the BNE-KUL route? I read some of the previous posts and there were suggestions these new jets would even have lie-flat (angled) seats, or total lie-flat seats even. About time too.

I am a big fan of MH, but this comment is probably fair: MH really needs to lift its game on their Golden Club Class seats when its archrival already has PremiumSeats, angled lie-flat for a low-cost airline. That's what has made me so annoyed, a full-service airline pulling a swiftie and swapping the B777 for an unrefurbished A330 for an overnight flight. Maybe the press release should have used the Aussie vernacular, "It's simply not cricket!".

Am considering a trip to India next year, but not in an old A330! As we say in Malaysia, "tengok dulu lah" (wait and see).