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Fly one way KL to Singapore at RM57 when you Buy between 05 Aug 10 and 11 Aug 10, or until seats sell out. The travel period is from 01 Oct 10 – 30 Nov 10.

Fares are subject to availability, for stated one way travel including taxes and fees. Seats are limited and may not be available on peak travel dates. Fares applies to a specific travel period only, as stated on their website. Term & Conditions apply.

For further information on featured destinations, simply Click Here!

3 x Consolations Prizes
50% MHcoupon discount on Return Economy flight tickets to Bandung from Kuala Lumpur; and MYR 100 hotel voucher on Bandung hotel bookings

Play till you drop from 23 June to 11 July 2010. Malaysia Airlines flies daily to Bandung from 16 July 2010!

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It is good to know that MAS is willing to join hands with us to work with the Government on delineating such a policy and ensuring free and fair competition on a level playing field (which Tengku Datuk Azmil says MAS welcomes).

The whole idea, of course, is that consumers should gain and Malaysia can benefit from increased tourist arrivals.

Tourism is listed as one of the National Key Economic Areas. And according to a study commissioned by Khazanah Nasional, the Malaysian aviation sector has a multiplier effect of 12 on the national economy.

Hence, a clear aviation policy, overseen by an independent regulator, provides strategic benefits to a nation’s economy as a whole.

It is in this context that we would like to respond to the article by Tengku Datuk Azmil.

There are several specific points he raised that we take issue with and whose accuracy we question, but we will limit our response to the broader issues.

First and foremost, let’s be clear that MAS and AirAsia X (AAX) serve very different market segments.

We are a low-cost carrier (LCC); MAS is a legacy carrier.

Thus, whether the routes we are allowed to operate overlap with those of MAS should not even be an issue.

We serve the underserved; legacy carriers serve the elite (those wanting premium lounges, unlimited servings of food and drinks, etc).

A four-member Malaysian family whose monthly household income is less than RM 3,000 will find it difficult, if not impossible, to travel to, say, Sydney on a legacy carrier at present.

Neither is an Australian family with a similar sort of income going to be able to visit Malaysia.

But those families may be able to do so if they are given the choice of flying on an LCC.

In short, AAX grows the market.

Here are the facts:

1. Markets have grown significantly wherever AirAsia X has been allowed to fly, even when in parallel to MAS. In 2009, annual passenger volume grew significantly on routes that AirAsia X operates in parallel with MAS: Perth (66%), Melbourne (41%), London (31%) and Taipei (57% – since July 2009). This contrasts starkly with long-haul routes where we did not fly: Sydney (-20%), Seoul (-13%), New Delhi (-20%), Tokyo (-10%), Osaka (-16%), and Paris (-15%). Clearly, we have been able to tap new segments and made it possible for new passengers to travel on the routes we operate. Interestingly, even when Jetstar was allowed to compete with MAS on the KL-Sydney route, passenger volume grew by 22% during the one year they operated, compared to the previous year. Beyond passenger volumes, inbound tourists have also grown from markets which AirAsia X operates. Tourism Malaysia data records the following growth in 2009: Australia (+25%), United Kingdom (+17%), China (+7%), and Taiwan (+4%). In contrast, markets where we have not operated shrank: South Korea (-15%), Japan (-9%). It is unfortunate that MAS tried to assert that AirAsia X carries mainly transit passengers that do not contribute to Malaysia’s tourism. They wrongly referred to a statistic that does not measure transit passengers, but passengers that have another flight up to 14 days later. Many of our passengers who take AirAsia flights to Penang, Pulau Langkawi and Kota Kinabalu are bona fide tourists, as are those that stay in KL for 2-14 days before taking another flight, as part of the growing multi-destination trend brought about by AirAsia’s low regional fares. In fact, a more robust analysis using like-for-like data sources such as Australia’s passenger arrival data or the PaxIS data quoted by MAS will show that MAS carries a much higher share of transit passengers that arrive from their Australian flights and connect straight to Europe or India – e.g., MAS transit passengers from Melbourne are 67%, Perth 61% and Sydney 59%, compared to AirAsia X carrying 28%-33% transit passengers.
2. The biggest market growth opportunity for Malaysia is from key trunk routes, and not 34 peripheral cities. With limited valuable aircraft capacity, Malaysia needs to smartly deploy it to the markets with the biggest unserved demand. Where does Changi have the biggest gains in passenger volumes compared to KLIA? There are more than double the flights to and from there from cities like Tokyo, Shanghai, Sydney, Beijing and Seoul which results in over 3.2 million more passengers from 5 cities. In contrast, there is only a net gap of 224,000 from the 34 peripheral cities MAS is suggesting. Would Malaysians want more flights to Sydney or Jeddah, or would they want Almaty, Tashkent, Ashgabat, Sana’a, Peshawar, Mahe, Port Moresby, Darwin, Pyongyang, Dili, Changsha? Where is Malaysia realistically going to get the most economic benefit? MAS itself has withdrawn from several of the cities that it is now suggesting AirAsia X should operate.

Singapore succeeds because it allows competition to thrive.

It is misleading to say Tiger Airways and SIA do not compete, citing a 17% overlap based on SIA’s route network.

Please check Tiger Airways’ IPO prospectus report dated Jan 13, 2010.

They fly to 20 destinations, and compete head-to-head with SIA/SilkAir on 75% of the routes.

They explicitly mention on page 19 that they regard SIA as a significant competitor and neither coordinate routes nor have any commercial cooperation agreements with SIA.

They don’t fly long-haul because they choose not to do so, not because of any policy to discourage overlapping.

Countries like Australia, New Zealand, UK, Taiwan and South Korea all encourage significant route overlaps among all their local airlines.

When we add more flights to Melbourne, more people do indeed choose to fly from KL instead of Singapore or Bangkok.

Here are the 2009 annual passenger growth rates from Australian Immigration data: Melbourne: +47% from KL vs 0% from Singapore and -2% from Bangkok; Perth: +67% from KL, vs -2% from Singapore and -8% from Bangkok.

In contrast, Sydney: -19% from KL, vs -3% from Singapore and -5% from Bangkok.

How many people flew from Malaysia to Sydney in 2008 that did not use MAS? 86,612 according to the authoritative Australian Passenger Arrival card data.

3. We should not be distracted by irrelevant assertions. MAS makes a big hue and cry about AirAsia X cancelling a service to Abu Dhabi and not flying on some routes where we were granted approvals.

How does MAS itself justify cutting many more routes and not flying to many more cities for which it has approval?

Let’s name just a few: New York, Stockholm, Manchester, Vienna, Zurich, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Cairo, Ahmadebad, Darwin, Xian, Chengdu.

AirAsia X has also invested in starting new routes, including Gold Coast, Tianjin, Hangzhou, and restarted Chengdu.

These are big cities and destinations in their own right.

MAS is being disingenuous in portraying these new routes as the same as flying to Brisbane, Beijing or Shanghai (each of which is at least 100 kilometres away from the above-mentioned airports).

But if MAS insists on claiming they are the same, perhaps MAS would be willing to swap slots and allow us to fly to Brisbane, Beijing or Shanghai instead?

Other factual inaccuracies that need to be corrected: AirAsia X does fly to Tianjin.

We received formal approval for 7x weekly services to Seoul from the Ministry of Transport on April 14, 2010.

We have not received approval for Paris-Orly. We never applied for Male, Maldives.

That was AirAsia Bhd.

Finally, the issue of Rural Air Services is also irrelevant.

The operations by Fly Asian Xpress were fully audited by the National Audit Department and no anomalies or irregularities were found.

FAX did not make any gain as all government funds were used to cover expenses, which incidentally were higher because of (a) higher global fuel prices, (b) higher service charges by MAS engineering services and pilots, and (c) higher aircraft lease rates charged by Penerbangan Malaysia Bhd, MAS’ parent company.

To be utterly frank: Indonesia allows Lion Air to compete with Garuda to fly to Jeddah to give more options for people to perform the haj and umrah; Singapore allows multiple airlines to fly the same routes and achieves success; and Malaysia has no issue with foreign-owned airlines such as Jetstar and Emirates operating the same routes as MAS to Australia.

So, why is MAS creating a furore over a Malaysian-owned airline, AirAsia X, flying to Sydney?

Yes, AirAsia X is aggressive and outspoken.

That’s because we are deeply passionate about what we do: growing the travel and tourism industry, innovating and breaking down barriers to make it more affordable for everyone to fly.

The data and evidence conclusively prove the benefits to the Malaysian economy and to consumers of allowing competition – not just in aviation but in any industry.

Yes, we will become a “co-pilot” and fly to Sydney and Jeddah together with MAS. And together we will help boost the Malaysian economy.

Source : The Star

Job Description

• Malaysian citizen, age between 18 to 26 years old (as at date of application)
• Pass SPM or its equivalent qualification recognized by Malaysian Government with six (6) credits including Bahasa Malaysia and a minimum of B4 in Mathematics, Physics and English taken in one sitting.
• Or
• Possess Diploma / Degree in Engineering or Science related disciplines with minimum CGPA 3.0 or above and six (6) credits with pass in Bahasa Malaysia in SPM taken in one sitting.
• Good command of Bahasa Malaysia and English both written and spoken
• Must be physically and mentally fit with good eyesight (visual acuity of at least 6/60 without optical aid, correctable to 6/6) and not colour blind.
• Minimum height 163 cm (5ft 4in).
• Successful candidates will be required to sign a bond with MAS -

For details, please visit Monster or graduan2u.

Tickets can be bought via the airlines’ ticketing offices, travel agents or www.malaysiaairlines.com.  What great about this year MATF is MAS will also be extending these offers to its customers in Singapore, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar, where the fair will run concurrently.

Some of the  great offer that you can grab during The Malaysia Airlines‘ Travel Fair 2010

• Asia; starting from as low as RM133 to Medan, RM213 (Phuket) and RM359 (Hong Kong).
• Australia; RM639 to Perth one-way, and RM1,069 to Mel- bourne (one-way).
• Europe; London, Paris or Rome for only RM1,549.
• Other; Bangkok will cost RM264; Beijing (RM487), Sydney (RM754) and the Gold Coast (RM816).
• Customers intending to go on their umrah and ziarah journeys can opt for MASholidays’ travel package from RM4,999 for 14 days/ 12 nights to Jeddah, with three nights in Madinah and nine nights in Mecca.

They can also opt for package deals of four days, three nights travel from MASholidays – inclusive of return airfare, airport transfers, accommodation and breakfast. The offers will also be available at all Malaysia Airlines ticketing offices and its 24-hour callcentre at 1-300-88-3000. Those interested can also visit the website at www.malaysiaairlines.com.

The stake sale is believed to have the approval from Vietnam’s Transportation Ministry on Tuesday and the joint venture airline did not require fresh capital injection.

It is highly likely that AirAsia will second some of its aircraft for the operations in Vietnam and drive the venture given its expertise in running low-cost airlines.  Vietjet AirAsia will operate both domestic and international flights and is currently finalising details regarding routes, frequencies and launch of flight.

But this airline owes almost 30 billion dong (US$1.6mil) for jet fuel and services, and has been unable to operate its sole plane since November, according to reports originating from Vietnam.

Vietjet Air has a share capital of 600 billion dong (RM112mil) and its founding shareholders are Sovico Holdings, HCMC Housing Joint Stock Commercial Bank and some individuals from Vietnam’s civil aviation industry. Following the completion of the share transfer, the shareholding structure in the joint venture airline will be AirAsia via AA International Ltd with 30%, Sovico Holdings with 51% and Nguyen Thanh Hung with 19%.

The move by AirAsia to enter Vietnam is to strengthen its base in the Asean region which has a population of nearly 600 million.

Via : The Star

AirAsia X is now having The Great British Sale from 1 to 14 February 2010 for a travel period from 4 May – 30 Oct 2010. Explore the sights of London, discover the castles of Wales, sample fine whisky in Scotland, or even catch a glimpse of your favourite football star in England- your dream Britain holiday is now definitely within reach.

Get your tickets now and don’t missed this great offer. The fares as follows :

• Economy Seat RM 899
• Premium Seat RM 1699

Book from 1 – 14 Feb 2010 | Travel from 4 May – 30 Oct 2010

To place your booking visit this page.

AirAsia vs MAS

For comparison MAS is offering a RM1,499 for a travel period from 1 May-30 Sep 201.

Emirates will operate a daily service and is offering a promotional fare of RM1,880 for an all-inclusive return economy class ticket. It offers three-class layout for this sector using an A340-500 aircraft.

For records, Emirates began mounting flights on the Dubai-KL-Dubai route in 1996 and now flies twice daily but yesterday’s flight brings its daily frequency to three. With the Dubai-KL-Melbourne-KL-Dubai flight, KL is essentially a transit stop for the carrier. Currently, the bulk of the traffic will originate from Dubai and Europe but “when the route establishes, there will be more traffic going in and out of KL.

The new frequency from Dubai to Melbourne via KLIA would not have an impact on the carrier’s direct flights to Melbourne that used the ultra-long aircraft. The rationale for the additional frequency is the growing traffic volumes on the Kangaroo route and KLIA is seen as a good stopover for passengers from Europe, the Middle East and Australia.

Via : TheStar

I have tried to search at the Get The Deal page, unfortunately I can’y find any flight to London in the system. The screenshot as follows :

If you are familiar with MAS system, I appreciate any comments on this. Thanks.

Lets see what can both airlines offer to us

Both airlines has their pros and cons. Whatever decision that might be, a proper planning to suit best your travel schedule and budget is more vital.