MAS Exercises options to lease two additional A359's

LAXintl · Mon May 23, 2016 11:17 am

Christoph Mueller says MAS has exercised option for lease on 2 additional A350-900 frames for delivery in 2018.

The aircraft from ALC will be in 12-year leases.

In statement Mueller confirms the A350 will take over the London route currently operated by A380s along with flights "throughout Asia".

Malaysia Airlines getting two more Airbus A350 planes
http://www.therakyatpost.com/busines...tting-two-more-airbus-a350-planes/

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Assuming the A380s are indeed leaving once the A350s arrive, MH will still have a rather modest longhaul network with only 6 A350s planned on property.

MrHMSH · Mon May 23, 2016 11:24 am

This practically confirms the departure of the A380s, which has been coming. Hopefully the A350 makes them leaner, but it won't solve their problems. At least they're not becoming a purely regional airline but with the tie-up to EK, although 6 A350s isn't much to shout about.

TeamintheSky · Mon May 23, 2016 11:25 am

Likely makes sense for MAS given their issues, but truly a shame. I flew an MH 380 in First last December from LHR and was truly a wonderful experience.

Regards,

Team

EPA001 · Mon May 23, 2016 11:31 am

Quoting TeamintheSky (Reply 2):
Likely makes sense for MAS given their issues, but truly a shame. I flew an MH 380 in First last December from LHR and was truly a wonderful experience.

Yes, they have a good product. And have had that program for quite a number of years when I flew with them several times to KL and back to AMS.

But the situation they are in calls for changes, and letting their A380's go in a couple of years in favour of the A359 is one of those changes. Their product will hopefully (and most likely?) stay very good, but on a smaller aircraft.

Two additional A359's is good news for Airbus and RR of course.

Planesmart · Mon May 23, 2016 11:36 am

Interesting to see if the MH/EK joint venture yields any additional benefits, like finding a home for the A380's with EK (unlikely), or with another of EK's JV partners, like QF.

jfk777 · Mon May 23, 2016 12:08 pm

Quoting Planesmart (Reply 4):

Interesting to see if the MH/EK joint venture yields any additional benefits, like finding a home for the A380's with EK (unlikely), or with another of EK's JV partners, like QF.

Maybe they will find there way to IAG with IB or BA ? Willie Walsh is looking for pre-owned A380 and the Malaysia planes are young and have few cycles.

Richard28 · Mon May 23, 2016 12:57 pm

Quoting jfk777 (Reply 5):
Maybe they will find there way to IAG with IB or BA ? Willie Walsh is looking for pre-owned A380 and the Malaysia planes are young and have few cycles.

exactly my thoughts, the MAS frames also have Rolls Royce engines, which is what IAG have also specified.

be interesting to see how this plays out - the fact the options have been firmed on the A350's does suggest an A380 deal has also been done.....

smi0006 · Mon May 23, 2016 1:07 pm

Shame to see MH shrink, but they need to shrink before they can regrow.

How many A330s do they have? Are they the newer ones? Whilst they may not be truely long haul, KL is reasonably well situated geographically. A large modern (more capable) 330 fleet could be very useful in building a frequency based hub. All of AU (SYD,MEL,PER, BNE?) are covered with decent frequency with A330s, plus regional Asia and India. They aren't exactly disappearing.

Quoting Planesmart (Reply 4):
Interesting to see if the MH/EK joint venture yields any additional benefits, like finding a home for the A380's with EK (unlikely), or with another of EK's JV partners, like

What engines do they have on them? QF may not take them all, but one or two would be good. Allow for maintanecne, cabin reconfiguration and SYD-HKG & LAX to daily.

Once the brand recoveres, I could actually see a JV with QF. QF have EK for Europe and Africa, AA for North America, MU for China, JL for Northern Asia - MH would be a good fit for QF in south east Asia and India. And as demonstrated buy EK and MU, they will happily look outside one world. Not to mention their own RedQ airline for south east Asia was planned to be KUL based. I actually thought QF should purchase a stake in MH, however very fortunate they didn't in hind sight.

parapente · Mon May 23, 2016 1:19 pm

Well WW would have never said what he did unless he knew it was a 'definite probability'.
If 2 RR powered A380's from MAS come on to the market as it appears they will, then it now seems very likely where they will be going (IMHO).

JAAlbert · Mon May 23, 2016 8:12 pm

I am sure the 350 will be a very comfortable ride for MAS passengers. It looks like a wonderful airplane!

Bealine251 · Mon May 23, 2016 8:55 pm

I'm confused about these. Not long ago there was a thread about these going or some of the A380's leaving and speculation on who would pick them up. After WW's comments that IAG where interested in more A380's the thread was full about them joining IAG. I then recall MAS saying they would be keeping them so scuppering IAG. Reading this it now looks like they are becoming available again.

usflyer msp · Mon May 23, 2016 8:59 pm

Why don't the other OW carriers like QR?

IMHO It is very odd that QF and MH chose to link up with EK instead of their alliance partner QR.

eal · Mon May 23, 2016 10:23 pm

Quoting usflyer msp (Reply 11):

The alliance with EK was before the QR+OW tie up, I'm not sure about MH. If I was MH I would focus on my bread and butter and clean myself up. They've got their fleet in about twelve different liveries and a name synonymous with cyanide. No rebranding the entire airline was a short sighted decision by the new administration. You already have a great product, it's the name that's destroying you.

EddieDude · Mon May 23, 2016 10:47 pm

So which are MH's destinations that will need/see widebody planes going forward?

LHR, JED, PEK, KIX, NRT, PER, SYD, ADL and AKL?

IndianicWorld · Mon May 23, 2016 10:55 pm

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 13):
So which are MH's destinations that will need/see widebody planes going forward?

LHR, JED, PEK, KIX, NRT, PER, SYD, ADL and AKL?

Add MEL and ADL to that list.

Quoting usflyer msp (Reply 11):
Why don't the other OW carriers like QR?

I don't think QR would be easy to deal with judging by the way that AAB appears to operates

EddieDude · Mon May 23, 2016 11:01 pm

Thanks IndianicWorld.

So how many A330s will remain?

qfvhoqa · Tue May 24, 2016 1:17 am

Quoting IndianicWorld (Reply 14):

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 13):
So which are MH's destinations that will need/see widebody planes going forward?

LHR, JED, PEK, KIX, NRT, PER, SYD, ADL and AKL?

Add MEL and ADL to that list.

PVG, ICN & DEL also see MH A330s.

col · Tue May 24, 2016 1:31 am

Quoting eal (Reply 12):
If I was MH I would focus on my bread and butter and clean myself up. They've got their fleet in about twelve different liveries and a name synonymous with cyanide. No rebranding the entire airline was a short sighted decision by the new administration. You already have a great product, it's the name that's destroying you.

I am very confused as to why you would reply like this. You seem to have no idea what has and is happening at MH. They have focused. They have 5 deliveries, not 12. Re-branding was not the issue, culture was very much more important. The short-sighted administrators are doing well going through the issues, and the brand is getting more recognition. I will be flying them again on Sunday and see a much improved airline. The losses are coming down.

IndianicWorld · Tue May 24, 2016 1:46 am

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 15):
So how many A330s will remain?

A significant fleet I would still think would be required.

They currently have 15 A333's in their fleet and their oldest is listed as being received in 1995, so one would expect that some changes would be required.

The airline also apparently has 2 options for A339 aircraft.

col · Tue May 24, 2016 1:53 am

Quoting IndianicWorld (Reply 18):
They currently have 15 A333's in their fleet and their oldest is listed as being received in 1995, so one would expect that some changes would be required.

All their 333's now date from 2011 to 2014 and total 15. All the early build units have gone. The strange thing was on the new build units they stayed with PW engines. There are also 4 x 332F.

qf789 · Tue May 24, 2016 4:26 am

Quoting IndianicWorld (Reply 18):
A significant fleet I would still think would be required.

They currently have 15 A333's in their fleet and their oldest is listed as being received in 1995, so one would expect that some changes would be required.

MH's current 15 A333's were delivered between 2011 and 2014

QF744ER · Tue May 24, 2016 3:27 pm

MH operates the very capable A333-323X model and these operate long-haul rotations to AKL from KUL.

The later A330's are incredible performers.

EddieDude · Tue May 24, 2016 4:41 pm

Quoting qf789 (Reply 20):
MH's current 15 A333's were delivered between 2011 and 2014

Okay, cool. So that is 21 widebody aircraft (15 A333s and 6 A359s) to serve their long-haul needs.

Quoting IndianicWorld (Reply 18):
The airline also apparently has 2 options for A339 aircraft.

These still exist or were those converted into the extra 2 A359 orders?

Spiderguy252 · Wed May 25, 2016 9:50 am

I wonder if destinations in India can see the A330s going forward; the only point which sees them at the current time is DEL.

Conversely you would think that sticking to 737s is an opportunity to be high on frequencies, but that isn't the case either with most Indian destinations being nothing more than a single daily service.

This is due to the LCCs: Malindo and Air Asia snatching chunks from the market, so it might be a good opportunity for MH to play its widebody card if the numbers check out. (?)

qf789 · Wed May 25, 2016 3:59 pm

Quoting EddieDude (Reply 22):
These still exist or were those converted into the extra 2 A359 orders?

They still exist. Last year when they announced they were leasing the 4 A359's it included the option to lease another 2 A359 plus 2 A339

EddieDude · Wed May 25, 2016 10:13 pm

Thanks qf789. Maybe exercising those orders would be the prelude for a future transition from the A333 to the A339.