Read here our wonderful minister with his outrageous encouragement for a bomoh to locate the missing Flight MH370. He says: "As long as they do not contravene Islamic teachings" This guy must be a joker. All rituals by bomohs contravened Islamic teachings. If the practice is in accordance with Islam, they would not be called bomoh, they would be called ustaz and imam and provide prayers for the people on board the ill-fated plane not singing some gibberish and nonsensical chants. I am sure as a Muslim he should know Islam forbids any form of wizardry, black magic, bomoh, or any thing of supernatural nature are....................SYIRIK! Read here what the bomoh gila babi soothsaying came up with. Those who do not understand Islam may think it is Islamic practice. Let me assure you it is not. It is a form of animism that still run strong in the Malay and many other culture. "Sesungguhnya Allah tidak akan mengampuni dosa syirik dan Dia mengampuni segala dosa yang selain dari (syirik) itu bagi siapa yamg dikehendakinya.Barangsiapa yang mempersekutukan Allah maka sungguh ia telah berbuat dosa yang besat" I would like to hear what JAKIM has to say about the minister and the bomoh.
Hantu Laut MAS announced another massive loss close to RM1.2 billion for financial year ending December 2013. Story here. The airline should be destined for the graveyard before more taxpayers money are wasted in propping it up for some stupid national pride. Irresponsible leaders who couldn't care less how the people's money being spent. Some two years ago, I wrote the article below on MAS. Not missing a heartbeat, the airline remained beyond hope in spite of the many changes in top management.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
MAS:National Pride Or National Shame?
Hantu Laut
There have been many fatalities in the airline business.
The three most well-known demises of national airlines were Pan Am, Swissair and Sabena of the U.S, Switzerland and Belgium respectively. I have had the honour of having flown with all three airlines before they were destined to the graveyard.
One must not have false sense of pride or foolish sentiments when come to running a business. If the business continued to lose money, sell it or close it down. Pouring taxpayer's money into this bottomless pit is completely irresponsible of the government, which eventually would become even more costly to shut down.
The Malaysian taxpayers should not be made to pay money to this sick child just because the government think they are beholden to keep employing those 20,000 grossly overstaffed MAS bumiputra employees and maintain a false and costly national pride.
The government should not be beholden to those good-for-nothing MAS management and employees, but should protect taxpayers money as trustee of the people.
MAS losses were not due to external market forces.It's just incompetence and bad management. Its major losses were due to gross mismanagement arising out of over staffing, overpricing of supplies by sub-contractors, high fuel prices due to poor financial planning and in a nutshell a blundering amateurist management team headed by people who have no knowledge of the aviation industry. MAS has enough business in the air, but excessively high expenditure caused the massive losses.
Its airline core business revenue increased by 2% to RM13.9 billion in 2011 but suffered a massive loss of RM2.52 billion.Higher fuel costs were due to management lack of foresight. A competent management would know how to hedge fuel prices.Since passengers help subsidised fuel cost by paying fuel surcharges, MAS management cannot claim that most of it losses were due to higher fuel costs.
Using the 2011 loss as a yardstick, MAS would have lost 10 Boeing 737-800 in 2011, literally chopping them up for the scrapyard, which hypothetically also means it could have paid the purchase of 10 units of new Boeing 737-800 in cash.Current price of Boeing 737-800 is at US$83-100 million depending on the configuration.
The airline had gone through various management changes over the past decade, yet nothing good had come out of it.
As I have predicted correctly of past management failures, I am still not convinced the new management team put in recently would be able to save the airline.There will be lots of talk but little improvement. Political interference and corrupt practices are rampant in the airline.Many MAS supply contracts were given to relatives and cronies with highly inflated prices. Remember the RM75 or RM150 per serving of nasi lemak episode not long ago?
Can MAS pay for air crafts due for delivery this year and next? They are 5 units A-380, 13 B737-800 and 5 A330-300 awaiting delivery. MAS needs almost RM10 billion for the next two years to pay for aircraft deliveries. How are they going to pay when they only have RM1.1 cash reserve, which will be exhausted soon to pay for the continuing losses.
With a severe red balance sheet will the banks lend them money or they may have to go to Santa Clause to get the money, the people's money.
Three things the government can do, forget about national pride, it's a national shame.............sell the damned thing to a private concern, close it down, or chop it up, bit by bit, and feed to the dogs.
Accident can happen when we least expect it and nothing we can do to stop it.
I always have reservations about flying in places like the Philippines, Indonesia, Burma, Laos and countries where air safety standard takes a back seat.
The Philippines had more than fair share of disasters, natural and man-made. From God's furies of earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and seasonal typhoons to man-made maritime and aviation disasters and not forgetting the restive provinces in the south where killings and murders hardly bat an eye.
If you think the Titanic was the worst peacetime maritime disaster, it was, but not anymore.
The worst commercial maritime disaster in history happened in the Philippines. The collision, ensuing fire and eventual sinking of the "MV Dona Paz" in 1987 dwarfed the death toll on the Titanic. The death toll of the Dona Paz was estimated at 4,375 people.
The tragedy was caused by human greed.
The Dona Paz was formally the "Himeyuri Maru" built in 1963 and plied the Japanese waters and had passenger capacity of 608 people. It was later sold to Sulpicio Lines in the Philippines in 1975 and used as inter-island ferry.
A ferry with 608-passenger capacity carried more than 4,000 passengers? A mind-boggling feat of sheer greed bordering insanity. Thousands of names were not on the ship's manifest and official investigation also revealed only one apprentice member of the crew was monitoring the bridge when the accident occurred, other officers were either drinking beer or watching television and the captain watching movie on his video player.
The Philippines has a long list of inter-island maritime disasters and Filipinos are one of the most indiscipline people in Asia.They have no time for rules and regulations.
Air and sea travel are still considered the safest mode of transport, but accident do happen and can happen when you least expect it and more often than not in countries where people have no respect for rules and regulations.
Cebu Pacific crash landing exemplifies a shambolic air transport system
The crash landing Sunday of a Cebu Pacific domestic flight in Davao City in the Philippines exposed a long series of disasters after the flight veered off the runway and ended up nose-down in a ditch.
More than 160 passengers of Cebu Pacific Flight 5J 971 escaped unharmed after the plane came to a stop, although passengers charged that the evacuation procedure was such a mess that if the plane had caught fire, disaster would have ensued. All flights into and out of the Davao airport were cancelled.
That was only the start of the passengers' problems, with the travel chaos spilling over to the next day as they were bused 170 km to another airport where crowds waited for hours to be processed. The plane was still stranded yesterday, making Davao City's runway inaccessible to incoming and outgoing flights. Read more.
Hantu Laut MAS, true acronym should be "Mana Ada System" or "Mesti Ada Salah", but still a great way to fly, if you fly business or first class and paid for by your company. Now that I am retired and pay from my own pocket, I only travel economy. I booked my flight online for 14 November on flight MH 2640 departing 15.50 from Kuala Lumpur to Kota Kinabalu and also booked and paid for two emergency exit seats for my wife and me....... to be precise Seat No.11B and 11C on a Boeing 737-400 configuration. I usually booked first row in economy which gives better leg room, but since all seats on the first row were already taken I opted for the emergency exit seats, which also give much better leg room. Sitting at the holding departure lounge and looking out through the smudged glass ( typical MAB bad maintenance and bad housekeeping. Unlike Changi, where you always see cleaners constantly cleaning the glass panels, MAB never cleaned those huge glass panels at the airport) I can see the aircraft parked at the aero-bridge is not a 737-400 but a bigger aircraft, a 737-800, which I have flown with umpteen times and knew that the seat configuration is not the same.
We boarded the aircraft and true enough our seats were not at the emergency exit. I explained to one of the crew and she told me to wait for the ground supervisor to come to the aircraft, who eventually turned up and apologised for the mixed up. I told him there was no mixed up, it's the airline that caused the confusion without informing me of the change of aircraft.As I have paid extra for the seat the ground crew at the drop bag counter (we kiosk checked-in) should have noticed and moved us to the proper seats.
Next, I was horrified when the ground supervisor foolishly turned to two kampong folks in the seats behind us to exchange seats with us.I politely declined and told him it is not nice to ask them to move since they are already seated. This clueless guy than advised me to seek refund from the airline. I flatly told him I won't want to waste anymore time and spend more money to seek refund of RM40.00, which will take ages to resolve. I have flown with many other airlines over the decades and I must confess MAS is still a better airline than many that I have flown with, but occasionally they do infuriate you with the "tidak apa" attitude of their staff. From my past experience some airline would just bump you up to empty seats in business class if they were in the wrong and there were many empty seats in business class that day.
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Flight 523 from New York had just touched down and passengers were applauding the pilot's landing in the South American country Saturday when something suddenly went wrong.
The Boeing 737-800 slid off the end of a rainy runway, crashed through a chain-link fence and broke in half just short of a deep ravine. Yet all 163 people on board survived.
Officials were starting to probe the cause of the crash even as they marveled at the lack of fatalities.
"We must be the luckiest country and luckiest set of people in the world to escape so lightly," said Health Minister Leslie Ramsammy, who said more than 30 people were taken to the hospital. Only three of those had to be admitted for a broken leg, bumps, cuts and bruises.
The Caribbean Airlines plane had left John F. Kennedy International Airport Friday evening and made a stop in Trinidad before landing in Guyana. The airline said it was carrying 157 passengers and six crew members.
Geeta Ramsingh, 41, of Philadelphia, recalled how applause at the arrival quickly "turned to screams."
"The plane sped up as if attempting to take off again. It is then that I smelled gas in the cabin and people started to shout and holler," she said.
When the plane crumpled to a stop, Ramsingh said she hopped onto the wing and then onto the dirt road outside the runway fence.
"A fellow who was trying to escape as well mistakenly jumped on my back and that is why my knees are bruised," she said. "So I am in pain, but very thankful to be alive."
Nobody had yet showed up to rescue her, "but a taxi driver appeared from nowhere and charged me $20 to take me to the terminal. I had to pay, but in times of emergencies, you don't charge people for a ride," she said, sitting on a chair in the arrival area surrounded by relatives. She was returning to her native country for only the second time in 30 years.Read more.
Some airports are nightmarish to travellers. Overcrowded, long queues, inefficient, dysfunctional and it just make you sick.
I have had fair share of being trapped at such airport when flights are delayed and tempers flare.There is nothing worst than being caught unprepared.
I used to like London Heathrow before it gets too big and too crowded.Los Angeles LAX from 25 years ago when I first landed there has given me an indelible impression as being one of the worst airports in the world, even then. Chicago O'Hara, the scariest airport. Next time you are there look out of the window when your plane taxing to take-off, you are likely to see long queue of planes behind yours stretching to infinity.Only one word can describe it 'scary'.You don't know when they are going to whack each other. Changi remains my favourite airport. KLIA, not to bad but need some tweaking for improvement.KLCC, overcrowded, hot and humid,food outlets always packed, lousy food and at times get very unpleasant.You hate to be there if not for the cheap fare and flight frequency.
KKIA,not too bad, not exactly my favourite, it's the one that I always come home to.
There are many more bad airports.Let the article below tell you more of the worst airports in the world.
It is one man's meat another man's poison.Some may agree and some may disagree with the findings.
Airports might be our gateways to travel, adventure and a little extra sunshine, but some of them, especially the bigger hubs, have been getting bogged down by the increased traffic and convoluted patchwork of add-on terminals that are supposed to be handling the growth. And these hubs seem increasingly unavoidable. We've got concourses that feel longer than than some of the runways, check-in and security lines that make you wonder if you'll start to decompose before you reach the plane, gate-changes that feel like a twisted game of musical chairs, and delays to take-off, land and even find a parking spot. According to more than 2000 participants from over 80 countries who took the "World's Worst Travel Survey," here's the ranked list of top offenders. For more travel "worsts," check out the Titanic Awards.
These ten airports are statistically the worst, there are certainly many others. Send us your picks of mayhem at airports!Continue reading.
Below is the latest on pilots falling asleep during flight.
The two pilots on Northwest Airlines flight apparently were too engrossed with their laptops to notice they have overshot their destination. If the plane was on autopilot what happened to the mechanism that suppose to trigger off the buzzer to warn the pilot?
Are their story plausible? Hope the NTSB gets to the bottom of this irresponsible behaviour.
Pilots Who Missed Airport Were Using Their Laptops
The pilots of the Northwest Airlines flight that flew far past the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport last week told investigators that they had been distracted from their duties by a discussion of a new computerized crew-scheduling system that the airline was introducing.
Pilots put in “bids” for routes or work shifts by computer, and both men took out their personal computers in the cockpit, a violation of company policy, the safety board said. The first officer was more familiar with the new system and was explaining it to the captain, the report said.
Both were highly experienced pilots. Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash., was hired in 1985 and had 20,000 hours of experience, about half of it in A-320s, the kind of plane the crew was flying last Wednesday, between San Diego and Minneapolis. First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., was hired in 1997 and had about 11,000 hours of experience.
“Neither pilot was aware of the airplane’s position until a flight attendant called about five minutes before they were scheduled to land and asked what was their estimated time of arrival,” the interim report said. By that time, they were still at 37,000 feet and more than 100 miles beyond their destination.Read on...
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?
