I remember MH reactivated 1-2 B747-400(s) for the KUL-LHR-KUL run. Are they still in service?

9M-MPP was repainted into the retro livery a few months ago and then sat idle, it has not yet flown any KUL-LHR flights since being reactivated. The last thing I read on here is it might not even happen.

The MH 747 fleet has been retired for several years before this.

Hajj season is coming up so it'll probably see plenty of use then

Haven't seen it move since it was painted and parked. Does look good in the old colours.

It was reactivated and repainted at huge expense (rumour says the CEO Christoph Mueller left after discovering it was signed off without his knowledge). It was planned to operate some flights to LHR, but that was cancelled (only one A380 was in for maintenance and the 747 was never needed). They also announced it would operate some domestic flights, but those never materialised.

It was left sitting at KUL, but left for CGK on the 30th June. Apparently it's been sold to Eaglexpress Air Charter Sdn Bhd (of Malaysia) but sent to Jakarta for repainting (so the retro livery was very short lived).

There was no clear purpose or reason for its reactivation, so the question remains, which government cronies made money out of it?

Hywel wrote:

It was reactivated and repainted at huge expense (rumour says the CEO Christoph Mueller left after discovering it was signed off without his knowledge). It was planned to operate some flights to LHR, but that was cancelled (only one A380 was in for maintenance and the 747 was never needed). They also announced it would operate some domestic flights, but those never materialised.

It was left sitting at KUL, but left for CGK on the 30th June. Apparently it's been sold to Eaglexpress Air Charter Sdn Bhd (of Malaysia) but sent to Jakarta for repainting (so the retro livery was very short lived).

There was no clear purpose or reason for its reactivation, so the question remains, which government cronies made money out of it?

As far as I heard there is no truth to the reactivation of the 747 leading to Christoph Mueller's departure rumour. What I've heard was that his personal reason for leaving was indeed personal.

With regards to the 747 reactivation meanwhile I really don't think it costs that much. It was kept in flyable storage & all the parts needed to reactivate the plane are in storage at the hangar (don't forget they still have the 744Fs in the fleet). In fact, they didn't do much other than to slap a new coat of paint, which was sorely needed in any case.

This is MH!!! They don't know what they are doing.

TheFlyingDisk wrote:

As far as I heard there is no truth to the reactivation of the 747 leading to Christoph Mueller's departure rumour. What I've heard was that his personal reason for leaving was indeed personal.

With regards to the 747 reactivation meanwhile I really don't think it costs that much. It was kept in flyable storage & all the parts needed to reactivate the plane are in storage at the hangar (don't forget they still have the 744Fs in the fleet). In fact, they didn't do much other than to slap a new coat of paint, which was sorely needed in any case.

We're still not sure of his reasons for leaving, but the "personal reasons" excuse is pretty normal in the business world when you don't want to elaborate on the true reasons. Reports from Germany are saying he'll be joining Emirates in September as its new Chief Transformation Officer - Link

Original article in German here: http://www.manager-magazin.de/koepfe/christop-mueller-chef-von-malaysia-air-geht-zu-emirates-a-1099707.html

The cost of a repaint for a 747-400 is around $150,000 - $200,000, not including the design costs. Even if the cost is small compared to overall running costs within MH, it still represents a grand waste of money, especially considering the 747 wasn't even needed, as only one A380 was in maintenance and they still had 5 flying.

Hywel wrote:

We're still not sure of his reasons for leaving, but the "personal reasons" excuse is pretty normal in the business world when you don't want to elaborate on the true reasons. Reports from Germany are saying he'll be joining Emirates in September as its new Chief Transformation Officer

I would lend more weight on the personal reasons rumour I've heard because the guy I got it from has good sources from within the company & had been proven right many times before. Plus, MH just elevated Peter Bellew to the top post - if there was any hanky panky going on I would doubt that they'd put Bellew in charge. They'd put a Malaysian guy up there instead.

As for the painting costs - if you'd seen 9M-MPP while she was languishing in KUL, you'd agree that she definitely needed a new coat of paint. And it could be that they have some red paint stashed away or they managed to get sponsorship from Akzo Nobel (if I'm not mistaken their retro 738 was sponsored by Akzo Nobel, so it could be the same case here).

Either way, they'd probably made back the money spent after selling the plane off to the charter company Eaglexpress.

Hywel wrote:

It was reactivated and repainted at huge expense (rumour says the CEO Christoph Mueller left after discovering it was signed off without his knowledge). It was planned to operate some flights to LHR, but that was cancelled (only one A380 was in for maintenance and the 747 was never needed). They also announced it would operate some domestic flights, but those never materialised.

It was left sitting at KUL, but left for CGK on the 30th June. Apparently it's been sold to Eaglexpress Air Charter Sdn Bhd (of Malaysia) but sent to Jakarta for repainting (so the retro livery was very short lived).

There was no clear purpose or reason for its reactivation, so the question remains, which government cronies made money out of it?

His personal reason is he is going to EK.

So let me get this straight...

Malaysia has a fleet of A380's that are 'allegedly' too much plane for it's needs...
Malaysia puts said fleet up for sale, nobody buys...
Malaysia takes A380 fleet sale off market...
Malaysia suddenly has a need for extra fleet as A380 fleet is now busy but is going to maintenance...
Malaysia to much fanfare repaints a mothballed 744 to supplement it's diminished A380 fleet, that's somehow now much in demand...
Malaysia, only needs to service one A380 and the expensively re-painted 744 is sold to a cargo operation...
Malaysia CEO Christoph Mueller says "Sod this, I'm off to work for a professional airline !"
Malayasia disappears up it's own rectum, never to be seen again...

Have I got that right ?

When I left on this last trip she was still there. Back this morning and sadly she is gone.

TheFlyingDisk wrote:

As far as I heard there is no truth to the reactivation of the 747 leading to Christoph Mueller's departure rumour. What I've heard was that his personal reason for leaving was indeed personal.

With regards to the 747 reactivation meanwhile I really don't think it costs that much. It was kept in flyable storage & all the parts needed to reactivate the plane are in storage at the hangar (don't forget they still have the 744Fs in the fleet). In fact, they didn't do much other than to slap a new coat of paint, which was sorely needed in any case.

The reactivation coupled with CM's departure is a weak rumour & certainly wouldn't be enough to warrant a CEO leaving. But what remains rather strong is the rumour that CM was not involved in, or signed off on this reactivation.

9M-MPP was not in flyable condition storage and required several weeks of work before finally the repainting was done. As for parts, MAB dit not & still does not have a great supply on hand. Since the cost cutting excersice there have been less parts on hand & delays on the B744F's were more extensive as parts , when needed, had to be sourced from elsewhere. Also both 9M-MPR & 9M-MPS have been parked with only the A330F's left to do the work.

More interesting is the rumour that there was no intention to reactivate 9M-MPP but some got it underway with the whole retro repaint circus against the back drop of again being a possible A380 back-up. Rumour has it it has been offloaded at very favourable terms for the buyer. Cronyism still alive & well with MAB picking up the tab ?

This whole deal has rolled quite some eyes & nothing appeared to have been learned from the past reactivation. Only this time around the ending is a bit more interesting. Can't help to wonder & worry for the future

9MMPQ wrote:

TheFlyingDisk wrote:

As for parts, MAB dit not & still does not have a great supply on hand.

Doesn't Boeing still maintain a spares "store" nearby (Singapore) for the sole purpose of allowing customers to reduce their own spares inventories???

So what, 9M-MPP has been sold?