Malaysia Airlines has announced plans to expand its long haul network, which is something we haven’t otherwise seen the airline do in recent years.
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Hi Ben. Bit surprised you did not mention the recent weeks (and up to end of year 2024) struggles with Malaysia. Either in this article or in the last few weeks.
https://x.com/MAS/status/1829102583157534793
https://x.com/MAS/status/1827256393168253078
MH is in a much, much, MUCH better position today than Garuda, which has severely cut its international network and frequencies, and is down to 2x weekly to AMS — a far cry from MH’s 2x daily to LHR. (Interestingly, for a non-Oneworld airline, GA flies to DOH as well — though how much of a codeshare agreement it has with QR I’m not sure.)
MH will soon expand with new A330-900neos and a new business class, which was sorely needed given that MH almost never flies anything other than 737s within Southeast Asia, unlike all its other rivals. That said, TG is racing far ahead as far as the money-bleeding ASEAN carriers are concerned, between the secondhand A350s and A330-300s joining the fleet (plus the A321neo from 2025) and the slow but steady exit of the never-refurbished 777-200ER, which I’ve had to withstand far too many times.
I don’t understand the relevance of Garuda to MH. A better comparison may be SQ and MH.
After the events of the last week, I wouldn't fly Malaysia Airlines if they were the only airline in the world. They left no respect for passengers or customer service and their safety standards are questionable at best. Avoid!
Too bad it's not with the A330neo with the much better seats. The current J-seats on the A350 (non-SAS planes) are rather uncomfortable and close to no privacy and not all aisle access. Only in 2026 will they start to replace these older seats which by that time will already be generations behind (comparing to Qatar and even BA!)
Why on earth would I compare MH to SQ? SQ is the ONLY Southeast Asian airline to have maintained the luxury and critical acclaim that Northeast Asian airlines like CX, JAL, ANA and EVA are renowned for. SQ — even Star Alliance partner TG for that matter — have a big European network; TG even serves Scandinavian cities like ARN and OSL that SQ can’t. In contrast, MH and GA have barely managed to maintain one European destination: LHR and AMS, respectively.
However, despite MH going through the worst year in its history (2014) which also happened to be GA’s best, MH has performed far, FAR better with its LHR route than GA has with AMS. MH has consistently had two daily LHR frequencies, whereas GA has chopped and changed with AMS — initially it went via SIN, then via DPS — and had to pull out of its own LHR service. See where I’m coming from?
"SQ is the ONLY Southeast Asian airline to have maintained the luxury and critical acclaim that Northeast Asian airlines like CX, JAL, ANA and EVA are renowned for."
this is the key point the two exist for entirely different reasons and run entirely different businesses. SQ is a global connector in line with any of the others; MH is a middling government owned operation that mainly serves Malaysian O&D traffic
GA already had a codeshare with QR for a while now, the reason why GA fly to DOH is because QR wants to add frequency but they already used all their slots at CGK so they decided to outsource that extra frequency to GA
Why compare SQ and MH? They have common origins - Malayan Airways. GA and MH do not.
I concur. I had flights booked with them next week. Just three weeks before departure they were abruptly canceled and I had to scramble to rebook with another airline at worse times and a higher cost, without even a hint of an apology or any assistance provided. At least getting the money back was fairly simple. But I'd probably pay more +not+ to fly them in future.
the slow but steady exit of the never-refurbished 777-200ER, which I’ve had to withstand far too many times.
Yeah, so desperately that you also had to bring false information about OZ 777-200ERs for at least three times, also misregarding JL/NH 767 status. You ain't fooling anyone here.
Article doesn't mention that Malaysia Airlines is rolling out free unlimited WiFi for all passengers (all classes, don't need to be a member of Enrich frequent flyer program). Reading media reports and trip reviews, free WiFi currently appears to be available on all A350 aircraft, and selected A330 and 737 aircraft. The plan appears to be to progressively roll it out across the entire fleet.