A lot have been said of this small wonder of technological achievement that supposedly can survey the seabed and look for wreckage of ships and aircraft on the seabed to a depth of 4500 metres.MH370 disappeared on 8 March 2014, with all the boasted technology the West possessed, no wreckage or shred of evidence of the plane's whereabout so far.
The Bluefin Robotics was deployed to search for MH370 in the depth of the southern Indian Ocean, weeks passed by, but no sign of the plane's watery grave, either this piece of technology is a tank full of shitty hot air, or the search was done in the wrong place.
Another serious blow to many of these highly acclaimed but untested aviation technologies are those gadgetry wonders installed on planes that supposedly help to locate any aircraft that crashed at sea in quick time by them transmitting pings and giving the exact location.
One particular pretty useless gadget fitted on most commercial aircraft is the ULB ( Underwater Locator Beacon), which pinger supposed to send ultrasonic pulse giving its position to SAR vessels. The problem with this gadget is, it has very short transmitting range, depending on the type installed, it is detectable from the surface from a measly 1 to 2 kilometres in poor weather conditions to about 17-22 kilometres in very good conditions.
Now you know why they still can't find the wreckage of Air Asia Flight 8501. It was not just bad weather the cause, the aviation industry is caught in a time warp, they have failed to take advantage of new technology available to constantly monitor planes in flight. Not only it is available, it is also very cheap to put in place.
It is people like Boeing and Airbus, the two major manufacturers of commercial airliners that should take the rap for the tedious task of finding a lost aircraft quickly. I suppose it's a matter of both economics and negligence, not very often a plane fall out of the sky or disappeared into thin air, so there was no pressure to change the antiquated technology.
The disappearance of MH370 and the crash of Air Asia QZ8501 may be the biggest game changer for the aviation industry.
I have both free and paid version of Flightadar24. They are not always accurate, but this is were the technology starts and can be perfected for the airline industry to keep their planes under constant watch.
I still remember the day Lee Kuan Yew threatened to close down SIA.That was in 1980 when I still lived in Singapore.
Lee's fiery speech telling the Singapore Airlines' Pilot Association, in no uncertain term, what he intends to do if they continue with their 'work to rule' action that have disrupted several of the airline flight's schedule.The pilots were asking for higher salaries and greater benefits. At that time SIA had many expatriate pilots.
Lee personally confronted the pilot and told them he would close down the airline, sack all of them, if he had to, and start a new airline. As a consequent, the association was de-registered and its officials prosecuted and SIA continued to soar into the blue yonder.
Lee has shown how tough he can get when facing a threat.This is what true leader should do when confronted with threat from a small group of people, too selfish to care about the nation's interests.
The great Mr. Lee taking on the Americans.
In 2004, Lee, this time not as PM, but as minister mentor had head-on collision with the SIA pilot union again.Taking up a personal charge to clean up the problem posed by the SIA pilot union Lee warned of "cracking head" if the pilot union moved toward a strike.His concern is two of Singapore's biggest assets, SIA and Changi Airport, which is already facing severe challenges from budget airlines and long-haul air crafts which could bypass Singapore as stopover point. As they say 'the rest is history' and without me saying, you should know who the winner was?
I must say, I am disappointed with Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak.He succumbed to too many demands made by the oppositions, his own party belligerents and now he seemed to have succumbed to the MAS employees union and the root of the matter is not even over wages and benefits for the union workers but about who can buy into MAS and who can't. The union is now interfering in the business and management of the company.
Obviously, Najib is listening to the wrong people advising him how to deal with MAS woes.
MAS massive losses of MR2.5 billion incurred last years has nothing to do with the share swap.The share swap was done in August 2011 which is slightly over six months now. Any nincompoop would know there are gestation periods involved before the company can show profitability. To say MAS is at the losing end of the deal is preposterous.If you replaced one shitty management with another one of the same standing should you expect any better?
Like the carpenter who blame the tools for his shoddy work, MAS management keep harping on increased cost of fuel as the gremlin of their problem. What about SIA and other profitable airlines, are their planes running on water? What about Air Asia, the cheapo airline, how the hell they can show profits for the same period? Maybe, their planes are running on sugarcane juice?
It's a shame that this bunch of Malay technocrats never seemed to get their act together, more attune to playing the blame game than getting down to serious work of saving the airline.
Instead of looking into cost cutting, redundancy, retrenchment and boosting sales, they found a new rat on board that may be cutting the ground under their feet. The rat is no other than Tony Fernandez, whom they see as a threat.
It was reported that officials of MAS union went to see the PM to state their displeasure and opposition to the share swap with Air Asia.The PM should have showed them the door and tell them it is not their business to tell him how to run the government, their business is to look after the welfare of their members.If MAS goes down, they all be out of a job, anyway.
Would 20000 MAS employees scare him into breaching the MAS/Air Asia tie-up? Would a new government entity taking over the airline makes it profitable? I cast my doubt.
Quote (The Malaysian Insider has learnt that Putrajaya officials are working on a plan for Khazanah to divest its stake in MAS first before a general offer is made for the remaining shares from other shareholders, including tycoon Tan Sri Tony Fernandes’ Tune Air, which owns a 20.5 per cent stake in the national airline. In the August 2011 deal, Khazanah got a 10 per cent stake in Asia’s biggest budget carrier AirAsia.) Unquote.
Food for thought!What happened if Tony Fernandez refused to sell after the restructuring. What you do? Shoot him,ISA him or sent him to Ceylon? Najib should make business decision, not political decision.He should not entertain the MAS union's demand.It absurd that 20000 MAS employees can save his premiership and he sacrificing more taxpayer's money to appease them.
Najib is moving in the right direction but he must show that he is control, he is the boss, not swayed by people who are harbingers of doom.
Quote (Failing to placate the union could turn into a political hot potato for Najib as MAS operations are centred in Selangor, an important industrial state Najib wants to wrest back from the opposition in elections that could be held within months. MI) Unquote. Close down the damned airline and F.O the MAS union.It's the people money that's going down the drain.
Alternatively, sell MAS to Tony Fernandez for a song.
Does he know anything about doing business? Can he interpret a "Balance Sheet" or read and make sense of "P&L" account statement, or understand what "PE" ratio is, or what is meant when a company is "highly geared" ? Has he any idea what is quick ratio/acid test or what are the negative aspects of "LBO" and what "insider trading" are?
I am sure this kampong bully who made it to the august house do not understand the intricacies of the corporate world. Just because some smart sounding alecs and clueless opposition leaders and equally clueless bloggers criticised the share swap between the two companies, politically motivated and out of envy rather than concerned for financial probity. Envy, because that Indian(Sri Lankan, if you wish, a good Ceylonese friend of mine refused to be called Indian, preferring to be called Jaffnese, which he thinks is more exotic) wiz-kid can do what they can't even dream of, let alone doing it. Bung Mokhtar's grandstanding here.
Tony Fernandez is an icon of corporate Malaysia, a true entrepreneur, rag to riches story that one should emulate and be proud of. He has done more for this country than some of the asses in our august house.
From opposition leaders with politically motivated agenda, the dickhead leaders of MAS Union, to this hillbilly from Sabah, I suggest you know your subject first before you open your big mouth. MAS is a public listed company, anyone can buy into it. Business is not run on emotion or sentiment, it's fuelled by money, the more the merrier.
Get it into your thick head, MAS is a very sick company, a cash guzzling monster ran by incompetent people. When it was wholly owned by the government the accounts were never published publicly, so we have no way to gauge its performance then, keeping the people in the dark and it was taxpayer's money that kept it going. We only come to know the state of its health and the incompetence of its management after it went public. The government should wash its hand off this sick baby, either privatise the airline or close it down and let free enterprise takes over the airline business in this country.
Air Asia has done more for air travel in this country than MAS ever did.It has made air travel affordable to the poor and low income group.
Unfortunately, MAS has still not woken up to its mistakes, the management is still fast asleep and they still have the highest fare among airlines in this region.They are only interested in winning stupid awards like "finest 1st class cabin service" and so forth. While other airlines reduced fares to get bigger business volume, MAS is only interested in maintaining its "haute couture" image, which it can hardly afford.The only way it can survive is to sack half the workforce. Tony Fernandez and the new board should do just that.
To give you an idea on how incompetent those running the airline, I would like to show some online fares of various airlines from Kuala Lumpur to London. I booked for my family of 4 adults and 2 children lowest fare of no less a premier and much superior airline than MAS on exactly the same dates.The difference is shocking. MAS fares are an airline death wish.
Below are fare comparisons:
Adults 4, children 2. (London/KL Return)
MAS:MYR62,990
SIA:MYR22,934
EMIRATES:MYR27,264
ETIHAD:MYR26,984
KLM:MYR23,814
All are full-frills airlines. SIA is using Airbus A380 and MAS using its ageing B747 -200 and 400.
Those who think so great of MAS better think again.Just look at the prices. All the other airlines fares are pretty close, which means, they understand competition, while MAS is still sitting on its laurel waiting for Santa Claus to save the airline.
Tony Fernandez has a track record of turning a loss making 2-plane airline formerly owned by the government, which he bought for a song and a huge debt and turned it into the pride of the nation. The biggest low cost carrier in Asia, making air travel a reality for the ordinary people.
What has Bung Mokhtar and all the bumiputras, who ran MAS have to show the world what good they have done for this country.
People who lives in glass houses should not throw stones.
He is a coward using parliamentary immunity to shield himself from libel action. He should repeat what he said outside Parliament.
What would be the strike price in the share swap between MAS and AirAsia ? Is the strike price going to be higher or lower than the market price?
The exercise would call for at least 1 Air Asia share for 2 MAS shares but the valuation could be more because Air Asia market share price is more than twice that of MAS. However, it is up to MAS and Air Asia, they can ignore the market price and set a strike price they both agree on.
It was initially rumoured that the cross holding would give Tony Fernandez's Air Asia majority share in MAS which was later refuted by MAS biggest shareholder Khazanah Nasional Bhd, Malaysia's Sovereign wealth fund. Khazanah has 14.06% direct holding and 52.29% indirect holding through wholly owned Penerbangan Malaysia.It appears that even after the exercise Khazanah would still be a majority shareholder in MAS.
The share swap is between MAS and Air Asia not with Tune Air as reported by the Editor of Malaysian Insider here. Tune air would have indirect interest in MAS through Air Asia.If such holdings were of significant size this would make it difficult for either company's shareholders to displace the existing management; if both were majority holdings it would be impossible to vote out either set of directors.
Unless he has control over the policies and major decisions in MAS I can't see the rational of Fernandez buying into MAS if Khazanah still call the shot.The swap, if successful, would also give Khazanah significant share in Air Asia if they have not already own some shares in Air Asia through nominees.It would also give Khazanah significant role in policy matters. However, if two firms cross hold each other, it is difficult to displace the management in one without the consent of the other corporation.Being a shrewd businessman I am sure Fernandez has something under his sleeve that we have yet to see.
MAS string of failures was not due solely to the CEO, the board of directors should take the bigger blame for the mess the airline is in. One should envisage the problem of working with a bunch of bureaucratic civil servants to appreciate the difficult working environment one can be subjected to.Remember the days when nasi lemak cost the airline RM70.00 a plate.Nasi lemak is certainly not gourmet food, you can get better nasi lemak from street vendors for as little as RM2.50.
Political interference has also contributed to some of MAS losses.The few years that MAS made money under Idris Jala was made more out of assets stripping rather than profits from its operations.Even if they did, the profits were insignificant.
Below Singapore Airlines group financial highlights.
Year ended
Revenue
(S$m)
Expenditure
(S$m)
Operating profit
(S$m)
Profit before
taxation (S$m)
31 March 1999
7,795.9
6,941.5
854.4
1,116.8
31 March 2000
9,018.8
7,850.0
1,168.8
1,463.9
31 March 2001
9,951.3
8,604.6
1,346.7
1,904.7
31 March 2002
9,382.8
8,458.2
924.6
925.6
31 March 2003
10,515.0
9,797.9
717.1
976.8
31 March 2004
9,761.9
9,081.5
680.4
820.9
31 March 2005
12,012.9
10,657.4
1,355.5
1,829.4
31 March 2006
13,341.1
12,127.8
1,213.3
1,662.1
31 March 2007
14,494.4
13,180.0
1,314.4
2,284.6
31 March 2008
15,972.5
13,848.0
2,124.5
2,547.2
31 March 2009
15,996.3
15,092.7
903.6
1,198.6
31 March 2010
12,707.3
12,644.1
63.2
285.5
All those years Singapore Airline were making profits MAS was losing substantially or profited under extraordinary gains while under Jala's management.It's a 5 star airline with 5 star losses.
Jala left in the nick of time when Najib pulled him out of MAS to join his cabinet.Soon after he left, the airline started showing losses again.Obviously, they have no more assets to strip or major asset unbundling, the formula used in the financial restructuring in 2002 after suffering huge losses.The Binafikir formula have a short shelf life, the airline is back in the red.
Would Tony insists to absorb Firefly into Air Asia and MAS to cease selling low fares to its passengers and stay as a full-fledged carrier? I expect these would be some of the conditions thrown at Khazanah if they were to bring Tony to the board of MAS.
Since the deal between MAS and Air Asia is not yet set in concrete anything can happen, negotiation can still break down if Tony doesn't get what he wants.
I envisaged this would happen and have written here the possibility of Air Asia moving its hub to Singapore.Never crossed my mind it would be Jakarta.
I have also warned that Air Asia has become too big to ignore and our stupid politicians in power and bureaucratic civil servants did exactly that.They even make life difficult for domestic investors let alone foreign investors.Bad policies over the years have driven away FDI and close to a trillion ringgit capital flight by both domestic and foreign investors.
If they have any sense of shame they should either close down MAS or give it to Tony Fernandez to manage.The airline is again losing money.
Big blow for Malaysia and bigger blow for Najib.
Maybe, this government deserves to lose.
Putting regional office in Indonesia is a blow for Prime Minister Najib.
With all the troubles he has had over the last two months, the confirmation Friday that AirAsia, arguably Malaysia’s most vibrant private company, is moving its headquarters out of the country to Indonesia is one more blow.
Tony Fernandes, AirAsia’s group chief executive, confirmed the decision in Tokyo Thursday, saying the move is an effort to upgrade his company’s image as a regional Southeast Asian airline rather than just a Malaysian carrier.
“I don't know whether Najib has been told or not,” said a business associate of Fernandes in Kuala Lumpur. “But why should Tony care? There are solid business reasons for moving to Jakarta.”
Najib has been on a whirlwind trip to foreign capitals to try and mend the country’s image in the wake of a violent police crackdown on peaceful marchers seeking to present a petition to the country’s king on July 9, asking for election reform. In a throwback to the 1980s, Malaysian censors blacked out details of a report about the march carried in The Economist.
That was followed on July 23 with the results of a royal commission of inquiry that concluded that a young aide to an opposition politician had been hounded so badly during a marathon interrogation over office spending that he threw himself out of a window and killed himself.
Then on Friday, immigration officials took William Bourdon, the leader of a team seeking to ferret out the details of a massive scandal involving defense procurement, off a plane in Kuala Lumpur, held him for several hours and ordered him deported via a flight back to Paris.
Fernandes characterized the move of the headquarters as a simple business decision to take advantage of Indonesia’s vastly larger economy and population, which is nearly 10 times that of Malaysia’s, although Malaysian annual per-capita gross domestic product of US$14,700 by purchasing power parity is much higher currently than Indonesia’s at US$4,200. The size of the country, however, meant that the Indonesian economy was estimated by the CIA Factbook for 2010 at US$1.03 trillion against Malaysia’s US$414.4 billion.
AirAsia’s decision to move the headquarters is a serious negative propaganda blow for Najib’s 1Malaysia Plan, an intensive effort to lure foreign direct investment to Malaysia. In September 2010, the Malaysian government announced ambitious plans to mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment in an effort to move the country out of the so-called middle income trap, and double per capita income to push Malaysia into the ranks of developed nations by 2020.
AirAsia may well be the only Malaysian company besides the state-owned energy giant Petronas to have made an international impact – and Petronas does it by advertising intensively during Formula 1 races and by sponsoring a car – which Fernandes does as well. Launched in 2002 as a regional no-frills carrier with just two planes, AirAsia now flies 93 planes all over Asia. In addition, a long-haul service, AirAsia X, flies to Europe, Japan and Korea. The company earlier ordered 300 Airbus A320neos.to expand its routes across Asia and beyond.
It isn’t just the publicity damage. In the past 10 years, according to a report by the news agency Reuters, private companies invested just RM535 billion (US$172.4 billion), according to official data. Malaysia’s private investment rate of about 10 percent of GDP is among the lowest in Asia and a third of what it was before the 1998 Asian financial crisis. The government, according to Reuters, contributes around half the investment in Malaysia.
In addition, Malaysia has long been plagued by capital flight, which has been generally regarded as an indication of lack of faith in the country on the part of its businessmen, although in Malaysia’s case the bulk may well be from stolen timber leaving the country from Sarawak and Sabah. Nonetheless, the US-based financial watchdog Global Financial Integrity estimated in a 2010 report that as much as RM888 billion (US$298.3 billion at current exchange rates) had left the country between 2000 and 2008. Illicit financial flows generally involve the transfer of money earned through illegal activities such as corruption, transactions involving contraband goods, criminal activities and efforts to shelter wealth from tax authorities.
AirAsia said the move is a bid to take advantage of access to the Asean secretariat, which is based in Jakarta, in advance of an open skies agreement expected to go into effect in 2015 and which is designed to lower barriers for air travel between the region’s capitals. Read more.
"Now Everyone Can Fly" a tag line that has become a reality not only in Malaysia but the whole wide world.
Air Asia, a fledgling airline less than a decade ago has become one of Malaysia's greatest success story.A pioneer in budget airline in Asia and Asia's largest low-fare, no frills airline.
Air Asia was founded by government linked company DRB-HICOM.The highly-indebted company was purchased by one man with one clear vision....... to provide affordable air-fare for the masses.
That one man is Tony Fernandes, who bought the loss-making company for RM1.00 and took over some RM40 million of debt and 2 ageing Boeing 737 .His stint at Virgin as a finance and accounting man may have given him the insight on how to start and run a budget airline.
Many thought him to be out of his mind to buy a debt-ridden airline and prophesied its early demise.The prophets of doom were wrong, the airline has grown from strength to strength and have now eclipsed MAS (Malaysian Airline) in term of fleet size, market capitalisation, profit and popularity.
An epitome of one man's loss is another man's gain. Fernandes has become the envy of the corporate world and his airline a household name in the region.This man had received many outstanding awards including the France government and the Queen of England.Malaysia seemed to have missed his contributions.
Air Asia has flown into turbulence in East Malaysia particularly Sabah where MAB (Malaysian Airports) had given it an ultimatum to move to the KKIA main terminal by 1st June 2011.
Moving to the main terminal would mean increase in its operating cost which would have to be passed on to passengers that would certainly cut its passenger load.Fernandes was against the idea and said he would chain himself to Terminal 2 if he had to, to stay there.
I am a proponent of budget airline which allow one to tailor the fare to suit one's pocket.
I fly with both airlines but more with Air Asia because of its better frequency of flights, newer fleet of air crafts and affordable fare.
Unless, you want to complain it is too cheap or you are just a stupid snob let me assure you there is nothing wrong with the airline, most of its planes are younger than those used by MAS on its domestic flights.
It would be silly of the Malaysian government to ignore Air Asia and give special treatment to MAS which is basically run by people with bureaucratic civil servant mentality and dare not face competitions.MAB excuse of wanting Terminal 2 as cargo terminal is just an excuse.I believe there are plenty of room for expansion where the present cargo terminal is.
Air Asia has become too big to ignore.There were rumours that the Singapore government is trying to court Air Asia to move its hub to Singapore with a promise of competitive costs and a dedicated terminal for the airline.It wouldn't take a lot of effort for Fernandes to accept the offer, if true, and move his main hub to Singapore.
I have flown once with Jetstar from Singapore to Kota Kinabalu and it was no where near as systematic and efficient as Air Asia, the queue at the check-in counter was so long I almost die standing.
The rumours of Singapore wanting another low-cost airline to make Changi its main hub may not be untrue.Air Asia is probably the most successful low-cost airline in the world.Many have tried to copy it but some have fallen by the wayside or are struggling to survive.
Read this on the screwing of Air Asia by Joe Fernandez
Competition pushes you to become better.It pushes others to become better.The world has become a better place because of competition.
Competition is good for everyone.It improves quality of products and services.It brings down costs. It gives cheaper alternatives. It increases volume of business. It spares those who are competitive and kill those who are not.Most of all it benefits consumers, people like you and me.
Without competition the world's economy would have stagnated.There wouldn't be any kind of sports, no new inventions, no new technology and absolutely no advancement of the human race.
The breakup of the Soviet Union is proof that communism and monopolistic policy can't survive the competitive world.China, opened its doors to capitalism and the free market economy because they knew without competitiveness they wouldn't survive the world's competitive markets.Anti-trust law introduced in the US and some Western countries was to ensure that competition stays for the benefit of consumers.
Why is it that when the rest of the economically vibrant world are in competitive mode Malaysia regress to outmoded economic practices? Isn't it against the very spirit of NEM (New Economic Model) purveyed by Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak to make this nation competitive.
Why must MAS be shielded from competition that is in collision course with Najib's new economic policy.Isn't the PM involved in the construction and decision making of the economic policy or was it left to the civil servants and political leaders who put a blind eye to fair trade practices simply to protect themselves.
At whose feet the ball stops? The PM,the Cabinet or some nitwitted minister?
Before the advent of Air Asia we have no choice but to travel all domestic routes with MAS.The airline has the monopoly and screwed its costumers with high fares and bad ground services.Delays were commonplace those days and there was nothing one can do as there were no other choice.In spite of being given monopoly MAS kept saying they were losing money as they have to subsidise the fare.That is now proven untrue.How come, now in stiff competition with Air Asia they are making money on this sector?
Air Asia came on the scene with its no frills and cheap air fare that gave air travel a new meaning....affordable fare for the common people and hence its slogan 'Now Everyone Can Fly'. The airline was transformed from a one plane airline to become the most successful rag to riches story and a household name in Asia, true to it name.The rest is history.
On the other hand, MAS, the spoon fed sick baby, in spite government protection, was sliding down the hill gathering mosses and losses that needed government bailout with massive injection of fresh capital and the appointment of an oil man to lead the company.
The first thing the new management did was to go on asset stripping exercise, selling its building and all aircraft to a new GLC company with a lease back agreement. The exercise cleaned up the balance sheet giving the impression that MAS has become a profitable concern in its first year under the new management.A closer look at the balance sheet in the first year revealed that the profits were not from its operations but extraordinary profits from sales of assets.
I started using Air Asia about 5 years ago but since MAS introduced its cheap fare I have switched back to MAS and have been using it for the past one year.
Book: 11 Feb 10 - 30 Jun 10 Depart: 18 Feb 10 - 31 Dec
Both airlines offered very competitive fares as shown above but MAS has the added attraction of full frills services. What Azran Osman said about MAS being profitable in the domestic and Asean sector is true.MAS, introduced the low fare to hit Air Asia below the belt.I am sure there are many like me who switched back to MAS, paying low fare and found the benefits of full frills.... free baggage allowance and free meal.It was competition that gave MAS that increased volume of business and profitability, not the monopoly that it is used to in the past.
MAS like most other GLCs such as TMNet, Proton, Tenaga and so forth are spoiled by government protection and monopoly.It kills enthusiasm, loses the competitive edge and makes those managing the company lazy.
TMNet, the sole fixed line Internet provider has not improved its services much since the Internet first introduced to this country, selling broadband that ain't broadband, fleecing costumers and not giving what they paid for.Its broadband speed and coverage is a shame.
Countries like South Korea which used to be behind us in the seventies now has the highest broadband coverage per capita and the fastest connection, at an astounding 14.6 megabits per second, better than many areas in the US.
Compare to Malaysia which has a bigger land mass, tiny Singapore has four Internet Service Providers namely Starhub, Singnet,M1 and Pacnet and some can deliver up to 100 Mbit/s.
I need not go into more details the misfortunes of Malaysians because of our government fear of competition....as they say if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.Government has no business to be in business if they can't run it properly and without protection.
Many of us are victims of false promises and misrepresentation. TmNet Streamyx fastest package is the Streamyx Corporate ADSL promising 2 Mb/sec.You have to pay a whopping RM1188 per month.Can it deliver the speed?
I have Streamyx Basic at 1 Mb/sec and it can hardly deliver half the speed.If any of you have bought so-called Celcom 3G wireless broadband you might consider throwing it in the rubbish bin.I have done exactly that and will be informing Celcom to cancel the service.It's a pain in the ass and money for nothing.
Why are the government giving protection to all these companies run by incompetent and non-competitive minded people who can't spell the word competition let alone pronounce it.
So, who flies to Pyongyang, Peshawar in Pakistan, Dili in East Timor, Almaty in Kazakhstan, Mahe in the Seychelles and Darwin, Australia?
Here, is a typical run of the mill crappy response from a politician.
I think it's about time Najib tells his boys what he promised the people.
As Mahathir says he doesn't need protection from the government on the controversial book written about him.
MAS, should select the men between the boys, tell the government it doesn't need protection.
They are always afraid of competition, they need protection and they need to be spoon-fed.These are bunch of shameless incompetents. With that kind of privileges who need smart asses to run an airline.Just sit on your goddam asses and let the government makes the money for you.
Government collect taxes from the people and have social responsibility to return the money back to the people in the form of infrastructural development, public amenities and other social obligations.
If you can't compete in business than you have no business to be in business. We all know the horror stories associated with government linked companies and what kind of people employed to run them.Why would we ever want to continue financing the laziness and inefficiency of these incompetents.This is the kind of lazy good for nothing ragtag band of incompetents that gives the government a bad name.These are the kind of pseudo corporate leaders who were there because of who they know, not what they know.
The Prime Minister's 1 Malaysia "People First Performance Now" would be a mockery and laughing stock if what happened recently in Sabah and Sarawak, which is causing great inconvenience to travellers between Sibu and Kota Kinabalu is not rectified immediately.
Air Asia has been servicing the sector for a while now, parallel with MASwings, and had become popular with travellers from Sibu to Kota Kinabalu and vice versa, which is now a hub with easy connections to other destinations. The low cost fare, good aircraft and efficient service given by Air Asia has attracted almost 80 percent load factor since its inception.
Now, MASwings, a subsidiary of MAS wanted to have the business all for themselves by claiming it is a rural route so it should be their monopoly.If MASwings can offer the same kind of service and cheap fare as Air Asia would the people shun them? Not only they are more expensive, they also used smaller and slower turboprop aircraft.While Air Asia uses the bigger Airbus 319, MASwings uses smaller turboprop Fokker 50 and Aerospatiale/Alenia ATR72 and has 4 dialy flights while Air Asia has only 1 daily flight.
It gets even more ridiculous with the fare.On checking with the online booking of both airline, MASwings return fare KK-Miri was quoted at RM342 and Air Asia RM158.Given the choice which airline would you choose to travel with?
I have flown with Air Asia a number of times and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the airline.You pay for no frills and that's what you should expect to get.I would prefer to fly an airline where everyone paid the same fare rather than an airline where I paid RM1000 for my fare and found my fellow traveller next to me only paid RM50.That's exactly what you get when you fly MAS.They put their low fare passengers together with normal paying passengers.They can't decide whether they want to be a full-fledged airline or a cheapo airline.
Instead of resorting to using government to kick out the competition, the people in MASwings should have used their brains to find ways how to compete with Air Asia in a healthy manner.They are receiving subsidies from the government but yet unable to provide good service and cheaper fare to the public.This is the kind of thing that get the people going against the government because it is seen as a punishment.
If Prime Minister Najib truly believes and practises his 1 Malaysia this is the time he can show the people that they come first and kick the asses of those incompetents in MASwings and its parent company MAS (Malaysian Airline), which, amazingly, has announced fantastic profit for its fiscal 2nd quarter, while all other world airlines,including the beautiful and most efficient Singapore girl, are losing money big time. SIA(Singapore Airline) announced loss of S$307 during its fiscal first quarter and have warned of being in the red for the full year if adverse business conditions continue.
This may seems a small matter but it will have its effect in the ballot box.You can give us more ministrial positions, more developments, more this, more that but at the end of the day it is the people's happiness that count and that Mr Prime Minister can translate into votes.
A very sketchy report of one of Air Asia flights into Kuching Airport yesterday that had the nose wheel locked at 90-degree angle forcing the pilot to land under emergency condition with fire streaming from its nose wheel.The pilot managed to bring the plane to a stop safely.No one was hurt in the incident.
Before you jump to conclusion and start blaming the airline let's get the facts correct first.This is not the first such incident happened to the undercarriage of Airbus air crafts.Records show that Airbus had a number of such incidents before.
A Canadian study issued last year documented 67 incidents of nose-landing-gear failures on Airbus 319, 320 and 321 aircraft worldwide since 1989.None has caused any serious damage or injury to passengers.One recent case was JetBlue Flight 292 from Burbank to JFK International New York that made a forced landing at Los Angeles Airport.
Apparently, the locking of the nose wheel at 90-degree is a design fault.
Today, shortly after takeoff from the Bob Hope Burbank airport, a JetBlue A-320 was unable to retract its nose gear. The pilot informed ATC and the plane was vectored over to the Long Beach airport where it did a low flyby, so JetBlue maintenance personnel could look at the problem. They were able to confirm that the nose gear had rotated to a position of about 90 degrees out of line to where it should have been. That is why the gear could not be retracted into the wheel well.
The intended destination of the flight was New York Kennedy. Obviously it could never fly that far with the landing gear extended, so the pilot had no choice but to fly in the Los Angeles Area for about 3 hours to burn off the weight of the major portion of fuel on board (there is no ability to dump fuel, on the A-320). He had to do that to reduce the weight of the airplane so that it could be landed at the slowest possible speed.
To reduce the risk of the nose gear structure breaking loose, which would lead to more damage to the aircraft and increase the risk of fire, it would also be necessary to land without putting anymore weight on the nose wheel structure than absolutely necessary, and to delay its actually touching the runway for as long as possible. I presume the pilot located passengers and their carryon bags as far aft as was feasible, so that when the plane touched down, the center of gravity being further aft helped to accomplished that objective.
To keep the nose gear from touching the pavement for as long as possible after the main gear contacts the runway, the pilot on some planes (like Boeing or Douglas airliners) might employ a non-standard technique of trimming the horizontal stabilizer towards the nose up position, during the actual landing flare, until it will go no further. Then, as the nose began to drop, he would hold it off even longer with the elevators, until they too were pulled back to the full nose up position.
That is a very difficult maneuver however, especially since pilots are not given simulator time to practice it. The danger lies in the pilot running out of any pitch control at all, before he has gently lowered the nose gear to the runway. If he does run out of pitch control prematurely, the nose gear may impact with too much downward force, and that would significantly increase the risk of its breaking off and causing additional damage to the plane.
Captain Scott Burke proved to have the required skills; no one could have improved on that performance. He stopped right on the center line of that 12,000 foot runway (25L-----which was not an "auxiliary" runway, as one Sacramento TV News station claimed), with plenty of room to spare. Best of all, the nose gear did not break loose.
I believe this is at least the seventh case of this type of accident (there may be even more than that), where the nose gear rotates to a position of 90 degrees, from where it should be, when the gear is down for takeoff and landing (this kind of problem could never happen on a Boeing airliner-----only the French come up with designs like that).
On Feb. 16, 1999 an America West A-320-231, attempted to land at Columbus, Ohio (CMH), total of 31 on board. Same kinds of ECAM warnings, when the landing gear was lowered. That plane was finally forced to land with the nose gear rotated 90 degrees out of line. Same result as this JetBlueplane, which landed safely at LAX today, except they evacuated down the emergency slides at CMH, because the pilot could see smoke curling up from underneath and he couldn't get the tower to answer his query----if any fire could be seen.
Prior to that AWA emergency landing at CMH, the French had issued a service bulletin on the problem. However, no ADs had yet been issued by either the French DGAC or the American FAA, so compliance was advisable, but not mandatory. America West Airlines did not choose to heed that bulletin, and the emergency landing was the result.
Analysis of the previous cases revealed "...external hydraulic O-ring seals on the steering control module's selector valve were extruded (distorted out of the seal's groove). A small offset was found in the steering control valve."
Airbus further found that the problem would not be detectable by normal visual inspection procedures. It appears that though the problem is rather rare, it does have to do with that particular design of the steering control module. Quoting Airbus: Read more......
The flight on Air Asia was uneventful like most flights are.Yesterday was my third time with the airline and being frequent flyer with MAS and other airlines before I must say it takes a few flights to make the adjustments from being pampered on full-pledged airlines and to no frills flight on this astounding airline.
My flight was at least 20 minutes late out of Kota Kinabalu but managed to land 15 minutes ahead of time at the LCCT at Sepang. My previous flight to Miri a few months ago also arrived ahead of scheduled time.Other then having a good tailwind how the pilot managed to do that frequently I really have no idea.
The aircraft turn around time seemed to be much faster than MAS and other normal airlines.To most airline time is money and time saving means saving costs.What I learned on this trip may sound very scary to some people and for very good reason.
After taking my seat on the aircraft and while still on the tarmac waiting for take-off the cabin crew announced over the intercom that the aircraft is still in the process of refueling and requested all passengers not to buckle their seat belts.It was probably a precautionary measure in case of incident of fire they could do a speedy evacuation of the passengers.Of course they only tell you the aircraft is still refueling but didn't tell you of the danger.
Could they do a speedy evacuation in the case of fire ? Not likely. In the unlikely event the aircraft caught fire while refueling there would be very little time for all passengers to escape as the highly combustible fuel would engulf the plane very quickly and evacuation using the steps would be much slower than using the emergency chute.
However, before you jump to conclusion just think over the years how many million times air crafts had been refuelled. Such incident is rare, therefore, the probability of it happening is as low as your plane falling off the sky.
Air travel in this country had taken a new meaning.With airline like Air Asia and their 'now everyone can fly' motto, most people especially the lower and middle income groups can afford to travel by air, previously the domain of those with money.The airline had also taken off the hassle of air travel by simplifying the whole process from its online booking to its paperless check-in, making it as simple as shuttling on a bus.Another plus for Ais Asia is in its online booking web page.It is more straight forward and faster than that of MAS.
The only drawback with the airline is it has no mercy on heavyweight travellers.Just to warn you no matter how little your excess baggage is you have to pay.To give you an idea on how much it cost for a kilo of excess baggage between KK-KL so you wouldn't make the same mistake as I... ..well not me, it's my wife who decides to bring some Hari Raya goodies for my sister, it's RM15.00 a kilo.It's not the airline fault and I have no complaint against the airline.You get what you pay for, no more no less.
I used to read complaints about the airline from people who pay peanuts and wanted excellent service.I think the airline is wonderful and is good for what it's intended for and for those who wanted more just go and fly the normal airlines.
For Sabah and Sarawak where roads are bad making road travel a torturous journey this airline has provided what MAS failed to do all this while, cheap domestic air fare.
Many of you probably think there is something wrong with me or I am mad to oppose MAS low fare in my previous post 'MAS:Now A Cheapo Airline".
I don't.I opposed the way it was done.
Most Malaysians would be happy to have alternative cheap fares, so am I.
I am not looking at it from that point of view.I am looking at it from the point of business ethic, unfair competition and inconsistent government policies.
When MAS was in financial trouble the rogue businessman Tajuddin Ramli, who headed the company and owned substantial shares in it managed to convince former PM Mahathir Mohammed to take back the embattled airline.One of the main reasons given why MAS lost so much money was due to its domestic operations where government has control over the pricing of fare.
Major portion of domestic networks are in Sabah and Sarawak, which means the two states are the biggest contributor to MAS losses, which is now proven to be a lie and a whitewash.
Sabahan and Sarawakians spent more time and money travelling by air than by roads due to bad conditions of the roads in the states.
Most of the federal-funded roads are badly maintained and dangerous for those not familiar with its topography.
Most of MAS losses were due to mismanagement and without any doubts cronyism and nepotism in giving out contracts to friends and relatives. You would probably still remember when nasi lemak cost the airline RM60 or RM70 per plate.
In the re-organisation of MAS, the government decided to give the domestic sector to Air Asia and MAS to concentrate on its international routes.As usual our fickle-minded government, say something and do something else.
Typical of civil servant mentality, MAS insisted and was allowed to retain the lucrative domestic routes, which as irony as it sounds,are all in East Malaysia which was earlier blamed for the losses.If this is a losing sector why fight tooth and nail to keep it?
In fact MAS gave up very little of its domestic sector.
It flies parallel with Air Asia on all major domestic routes except those with very low load factor, which was given to Air Asia under its subsidiary company.This was later handed back to MAS due to high maintenance costs of the old air crafts taken over by Air Asia from MAS.
Even under unfair competition,volatile and overcrowded market and rising operational costs,Air Asia,through its pragmatism, innovation and aggressive marketing policy managed to turn a one-plane airline to what it is today, the most successful low cost carrier in this region.
Unlike SIA, our national carrier is an infant that refused to grow up and needs breast feeding every now and then.It's incapable of launching new products for the travelling public.It only prides itself over it cabin service in 1st and business class even if it comes at a very high cost.
Instead of competing with the likes of SIA,Cathay and other major premier airlines, it takes the easy way out, become a copycat, copy and compete with the very same airline it copied the concept from, a fledgling airline that doesn't have government crutches to prop it up in the event of financial difficulties.
Like many Malaysians I would be very happy to have more choices of cheaper fare but I think it is wrong for the government to allow MAS to sell zero fare tickets on the same plane used by its full-fare passengers.
If MAS needs to do it ,it should have used one of its subsidiaries,MASWings or Firefly to be a low-cost carrier and compete on the same level playing field.
Many would think Idris Jala is smart,I would say he is void of ideas and our politicians void of convictions.
I strongly believe in free enterprise and healthy competition.You can't call it a competition anymore when the playing field is not level and your opponent hit you below the belt and the referee allows it.
The airline business is now a cut-throat business due to high operational costs andtoo many players in the market.Those with good business sense, innovative and good foresight will succeed while those who do not care to innovate, fear competition and in some cases sit on a pile of government subsidies would eventually sees its own demise.
Singapore Airlines (SIA) is today operating its first all-business class service, between its Singapore base and New York-Newark in the USA. Flight SQ22 departed Singapore at 11:00 today and the Airbus A340-500 is due to arrive in Newark at 17:50 local time.
The carrier announced in March that it planned to switch the A340-500s to an all-business class operation seating just 100 passengers in a 1-2-1 layout. It said the change was being made as a result of higher demand from business travellers for the non-stop US services.
That's Singapore Airline.Let see where our national carrier is taking us to.
Malaysia Airlines is offering 1 million free domestic fares this month to promote its new Everyday Low Fares program, which MD and CEO Idris Jala said "will redefine the rules in the travel industry" if successful. MAS's effort to compete against low-fare giant AirAsia will feature nonrefundable one-way fares of MYR76 ($24) and MYR120 between East and West Malaysia excluding airport taxes and surcharges and will be available online at least 30 days prior to departure. Jala said there will be no loss in revenue, as the fares represent 30% of surplus seats that otherwise would go unsold.
The zero fare quoted by MAS and in comparison with AirAsia are shown below:
Even with minimal fare added plus baggage fee Air Asia is still cheaper than MAS.
That's besides the point.What is MAS doing competing with low-cost carrier when it has been decided it should concentrate, improve and expand its international routes and compete with such airlines as SIA,Cathay Pacific and other premier airlines.
It is hard to reconcile putting a passenger who pays say RM1058.00 to fly KK-KL return and his next seat neighbour who pays RM76.00 and get the same service and the same lousy lunch box(usually sold on non-frills airlines)in the economy class.MAS quality of food has deteriorated so much on it domestic sector even those sold on non-frills airline taste better and cheaper.
The excuse that those 30 percent of seat would be unsold anyway goes to show the airline are run by lazy people who would rather be copycats and degrade the airline status rather than taking concerted effort to promote a competitive fare and services than most full-fledged airline should be doing to attract more costumers.
The video above shows some of the surprises you can get on some of MAS planes.
The airline always seems to be getting some sort of awards especially for its in flight services more in it first and business class on international flights and certain sectors rather than a reflection of it overall quality of service.It has also one of the highest air fare in this region.
The normal domestic fare has skyrocketed.The normal return fare KK-Labuan,flight time of less than 30 minutes is now RM350.00.The normal economy fare between KK-KL and return is as shown below.
Flight From/To Time Super Saver Flex Saver Full Flex MH2601 Kota Kinabalu Kuala Lumpur International Airport Wed, 21 May 07:20 10:50 Sold Out MYR 329.00 MYR 529.00
Flight From/To Time Super Saver Flex Saver Full Flex MH2604 Kuala Lumpur International Airport Kota Kinabalu Sun, 25 May 07:30 10:05 Sold Out MYR 329.00 MYR 529.00
The return economy fare KK-KL-KK worked out to be RM1058.00.
The fare below is what my wife paid to AirAsia for her flight from Phnom Penh to KL.
Flight 1 Guest60.00 US Administration Fee 9.00 US Fuel Surcharge 20.00 US Sub Total 89.00 US Services & Fees 1 x Xpress Boarding 2.00 US 1 x Checked Baggage 2.00 US Sub Total 4.00 US Total Amount 93.00 US
From KL to KK
Flight 1 Guest 55.00 MY Airport Tax 6.00 MY Administration Fee 22.50 MY Fuel Surcharge 43.00 MY Sub Total 126.50 MY Services & Fees GoInsure 6.00 MY 1 x Xpress Boarding 5.00 MY 1 x Checked Baggage 6.00 MY Sub Total 17.00 MY Total Amount 143.50 MY
The total one way journey costs her RM437.50.
With such high fare it is little wonder that MAS load factor is lower than it should have been if the fare have been more competitively priced.
In the past MAS complained that most of it losses were from the domestic sector and it was supposed to give up its domestic sector in entirety.
Now, we know that was a lie and a whitewash.If that was true, why are they still keeping the domestic routes and fly parallel with Air Asia on most domestic flights.
You don't need a wiz kid to run MAS, you just need someone with the brain in the right place.
Transport Minister Ong Tee Keat said the current price war between MAS and Air Asia is a healthy competition which will benefit the nation.
That's one big bullshit.It's not healthy competition, it's unfair competition.You either no-frills or full-frills and should learn to be honorable and stick to the original agreement.
Come on MAS, you want to be a cheapo or a full-fledged airline?
