Flight MH370: Malaysia's Conundrum Of Inconsistencies

Hantu Laut


Suddenly, Malaysia is full of clever people, yet they make one blunder after another, the latest being the military revelation that they tracked the plane over our airspace  to the Malacca Strait as far as Pulau Perak before it disappeared from radar at 2.40 a.m, and for reason only known to themselves, they only disclosed this information four days later, after four days of wild and frantic search for the plane in the wilderness of the South China Sea.

I am now beginning to doubt whether this information is reliable after getting so many misleading information from people who are called experts in their field.

If Flight MH 370 actually flew in that direction with its transponder switched off or broken, which means the plane is unidentified and flying incognito in Malaysian airspace, why did not the military scramble its fighter jet to investigate this flying object. The civil aviation radar tells a different story, claimed it last contact was at 1.30 a.m.

Now we have another expert in fuck I don't what, who also want to be in the limelight, dishing out balderdash nobody really want to know at this moment. Who is really interested to know that those poor souls can survive two months at sea when you can't even locate the bloody plane?

I know of the meaning of geopolitical, geostationary and geostrategic. Can someone tell me what does a geostrategist do?

Malaysia is now becoming the biggest joke to the world and in a "State of Inconsistencies"

1.DCA"s DG announced 5 people checked-in, but didn't board the plane and their luggage were off loaded, MAS was silent, much later the IGP says no such thing, all passengers boarded the aircraft, MAS in the affirmative. Why?

2.The case of wrong colour bar, Asian, Black or Caucasian.Different version by different people, Zaid Hamidi, Hishamuddin Onn and the DG of DCA. Why?

3.More serious and a logistic nightmare, two completely different stories by the military and civil aviation. One radar made in Bangladesh (pun intended) and the other one made in China (pun intended) which can't agree with each other and the military taking four days to reveal such vital information because of complete system failure. Why?

If you don't know, say you don't know, or just fuck the shut up!

Don't you think we are now a laughing stock to the world?

MAS: National Pride Or National Shame ?.....Reposted!

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.

MAS, national pride or national shame?

Blast from the past, read here, talk is cheap!

MAS: "Mana Ada System" atau "Mesti Ada Salah" ?

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.

Air Asia Flying Into Turbulence

Hantu Laut

"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

Hantu Laut

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.

The 10 Most Hated Airports In The World

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.