Aerospace Diary

Neelam Mathews Nov 15, 2012 MAS has received its third A380. The fourth will be delivered by the end of this week. Malaysia Airlines is the eighth operator of this new aircraft and will receive its remaining two A380 by the first quarter of 2013. Malaysia Airlines will use two 494-seater aircraft to commence day-time flights from KLIA to London Heathrow starting Nov 24. Flight MH4 will depart KLIA at 10.45am daily to arrive London Heathrow the same day at 4.15pm. The return flight MH1 departs London daily at 10.00pm and arrives KLIA the next day at 6.20pm. This day service will complement Malaysia Airlines’ current daily A380 night service to the UK capital, where MH 2 departs KLIA at 11.40pm and arrives in London at 5.50am the following day with the return flight MH3 departing London at 12.00 noon and arriving KLIA at 7.25am the next day. With the introduction of the double daily A380 services effective 24 November 2012, Malaysia Airlines will cease the 359-seater B747-...

Posted by- Neelam Mathews Sept 11, 2012 Indonesia’s largest private budget airline Lion Air has entered into a joint venture with Malaysia’s National Aerospace and Defence Industries (NADI) to form a hybrid carrier, Malindo Airways. The fleet comprising 12 737-900ER will start flying by mid- 2013. KLIA will be the base for the carrier that will fly ASEAN and domestic routes. NADI will hold 51% in the new carrier and Lion 49%. Chandran Ramamuthy of Lion Air will head the new venture. This follows AirAsia’s recent acquisition of Batavia Air to tap Indonesia’s 230 million population.   Malindo Air will get aircraft for its its fleet from Lion Air Group, including the 787s for possible Europe flights. It is rumored that Lion Air is looking at ordering another ten 787s. Batik Air, Lion Air’s long-haul carrier, will start its operations in March with six Boeing 737s and five 787s, a company official was quoted saying. Pix- ap...

ASIAN AIRLINES & AIRPORTS MAY / JUNE 2012 With air transport operations ballooning throughout Asia, it is little wonder that OEMs and third-party  providers are expanding MRO facilities across the region. In fact Asia’s MRO market is projected to reach  parity with that of the Americas and Europe by 2021. But which are the real growth zones? Neelam Matthews reports Things are moving in Asia. Rolls-Royce opened its first ever purpose-built field services hub at Kuala Lumpur International Airport to support the company’s growing civil aerospace customer base in South East Asia including Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia X. It’s just part of a global MRO trend to be close to growing Asian customers. “The facility (at KLIA) will be the focal point of all our civil large-engine support in Malaysia,” Mark McGuinness, Chief Service Representative, Civil Aerospace, Rolls-Royce, said. "And it will play an increasing important role in the surro...