Saturday, March 31, 2012

As long as MAS is here, have no fear


At 1:30 AM, we were awoken by several repeated beeps of incoming messages in our BBM Groups. Since awake, scrolled through several incoming SMSes. Found one giving a disturbing SMS regarding a MAS flight to Mumbai.

Forwarded the SMS to few concerned friends. Bigdog was still up and awake. He called to explain.

It is nothing to worry there.
But it got us thinking.

Wait a minute ... since we are already wide awake by the excitement, might as well try that Cafe Arabica the Mrs bought last week. She's been bragging about it in the last few days. In other words, she is asking us to try ...

Hmmm .... it taste good, even without sugar. Now back to the SMS.
While the Engineering Department is still operating under MAS and not some Tony F and his crony in the background owning the out-sourced engineering company, such incident should not be too worrying.

But what will happen when it is outsourced?

Wonder how will Medium Haul CEO aka Deputy CEO communicate with the public on the incident tonight. Or is the too young Dato' too bewildered by something else ... hehehe...

His response to an incident is funny and amusing. Read on to know ...

The SMS received reads like this:
Malaysian Airlines MH 194 to Mumbai had a technical problem and the flight was called back to Kuala Lumpur midway after two hours of flight in air. There are panicking passengers at the Airport.
We can appreciate their nervousness. However, we trust the MAS staff are familiar and professional enough to know how to handle the situation.

Unlike the Boeing 747 used for long haul flight that used four engines, the medium haul flight to Mumbai use the highly reliable Rolls Royce twin engined Boeing 777 planes.

If something go wrong or usually suspect of going wrong to an engine on a Boeing 747, the plane still have three engines to spare.

It's like driving old Beetle Volkswagen. If there is no engine at the front, there is still that spare engine in the back. Just an old joke there.

However, it is not the case for Boeing 777 with two engines. If one of the engine is suspected to go wrong, it is standard safety procedure to return and not take chances. There is no engine to spare. More so, when it involves flying over large distance of water.

In two hours, that flight to Mumbai should be within the vicinity of Sumatra. The unfamiliar would have felt shocked but it is nothing to worry. It has happened before with MAS and all airlines of the world.

Alas ... pity the staff. They have to handle lots of very vocal Indians. As long it is MAS pilots, MAS Engineering and MAS procedures, there is nothing to fear. They are people highly sought after in the airline industry.

But not necessarily MAS management.


What would happen if engineering is out-sourced to Tony F and his cronies?

Do not discount the possibility that Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, and Dato Rashdan "Danny Yusof" is also in on it. As it is, the staff are grumbling that behind CAE, the out-sourced company running the training facility, is Tony F and the gang.

Air Asia is not known for safety and have ZERO experiance in running engineering. Probably Air Asia will not be involved directly. It add to their CASK (cost per available seat km).

What about Tony F himself and his cronies?

It is, after all, a profitable business based on the business model of cost plus with a minimum guaranteed volume that Bina Tidak Fikir's WAU had "smartly" out-sourced MAS catering, IT and many others before.

Why did we say Air Asia does not equate with safety?

We've said here many times that Air Asia's cost saving driven landing procedures had caused over-run at Kota Kinabalu airport three times in a year. Google on the Internet and one will come across many images of Air Asia planes crash landed. See here.

"Now everyone can die" and not fly.


While this Boeing 777 trip to India should not be too worrying, the London trip, for instance, should be. It should have long been the concern of Khazanah.

The flight to London is regularly full, but it is not making much money. It is simply because it is flying on 20 year old fuel guzzling Boeing 747s.

Delay causing technical problems, though usually minor, are beginning to be a regular problem. This has caused customer dissatisfaction.

As an old aircraft, the features in our Boeing 747 fleet are out-dated and unattractive to customer for the ticket price charged. Many end up taking SIA or other airlines

Don't talk of Air Asia-X can giving better value for money. It is closing up routes because it can't make money at that low price.

In the long haul flight, those ladies in sexy red short skirts don't matter even if they provide mile high service. MAS's reknown MH or Malaysian Hospitality can only do so much.

This highlight the problem of marketing and the poor revenue of MAS. It is a product problem and the problem originated from Azman Mokhtar at Khazanah. They did not support the laid out Business Transformation Plan.

WAU II anyone?

Off course not.

Only nutheads would resort to the WAU the second time despite it's failure the first time around.

It was WAU and Khairy manouvred Airline Rationalisation Plan in 2005 that drastically slashed MAS routes.

Some routes may seemed unprofitable but it serves the purpose of establishing a network, which is important in full service premium airline business. At times, it serve a strategic purpose for regional market entry.

Unlike Air Asia and Air Asia-X that never earned their routes but got it through stealing from MAS, they could never appreciate the trouble, cost and time to secure, negotiate and develop international routes.

Air Asia simply take MAS's Christchurch route and closed it when it can't make money. If that route return to profitability, both Air Asia and MAS are not positioned to benefit from it.

WAU outsource catering and IT and WAU II will outsource ground handling and training. These two outsourcing programs destroyed MAS competitiveness in the need to have a comprehensive operation and services within it's disposal.

Something sinister must be happening behind the scene for MAS to out-source the profitable cargo services.

Imagine the "spine and spoke" concept of Hahn Airport as distribution hub into Europe had remained and managed smartly. It could have been phenomenol.

That is the real problem in MAS.

Too many short sighted pen pushing morons, organisational politicians and backstabbers in the "Dolly Parton"-like top and middle management of MAS. It is too top-heavy with too many with Managers, Directors and Presidents as suffixes.

It is these level of staff that are abusing the travel benefit to staff.

Generally, the common staff can't afford the food and lodging to take up their once a year free travel abroad. The trip to Haj and Umrah is dominated by the Jabatan Kebajikan Islam MAS for their cronies. Neither do the staff travel much domestically by plane on discount fare.

The common staff won't abuse to upgrade their nanny to fly first class on paid economy ticket. It is only Executive Director that once wreck the company and are wrecking it again that abuse company benefit.

Only such person would abuse company money to pay 18 million pound to a crony's English football team to advertise for only home matches, while crony's company get the higher coverage away games.

QPR is languishing at the bottom of table and bringing shame to the name Malaysia on the jersey.

In comparison, Genting paid a better deal for RM17 million pound for home and way matches plus other promo and goodies for Aston Villa.

Questions should be asked: Did Azman Mokhtar and Danny get kickback for this favour and endorsement?

Wee Choo Keong caught Danny upgrading his nanny to first class for the price of economy without informing the Chief Steward on a flight Sydney to Kuala Lumpur on new year, 1-1-2012.

Read on in Wee here for the ensuing and amusing story.

Good way to start the new year for more rip-off with another abuse of power, ain't it?

For Azman, Danny and many other detractors, when he was managing MAS and he still is entitled, Tan Sri Tajuddin Ramli never used the staff benefit. Love him or loathe him, he paid in full.

We should wonder what was special about his nanny. Could she be as sexy as Fran Drescher to deserve a first class plane seat next to the boss?

Mile High Club, Danny Boy eh?

No.. not with the wife accompanying.

After the ruckus of Air Asia-X passengers using MAS planes at no additional cost got media attention, the issue of Danny's abuse finally came up. How did Danny responded?

The idiot bersumpah atas nama Allah and recited some Quranic verses to cclaim his innocence. How stupid can this wet-behind-the-ear boy do?

Never ever do that.

Never abuse God's name to strengthen one's words. More so to abuse God's name to tell a lie and hide one's guilt.


Wee revealed a little of the Voyage Report here.

It shows how ignorant the Deputy Managing Director or de facto CEO is of airlines operations. It also proves Danny as someone without conscience and a liar whose words cannot never be trusted, even when he swear in the name of God. He did it before in many statements on the CCF.

Hope he deny and issue a press statement. Then we can see the whole blown up version of the report. Don't go witch hunt or many more abuses will be revealed.

Itulah terjadi kepada penganalisa kerusi empok yang hanya berdasarkan kertas laporan dan membaca angka (that happens to armchair analyst who rely on paper reports and numbers). They are totally ignorant of procedures.

It is a safety requirement to keep proper record of passengers's names and seats. That is to prepare in the event of any unfortunate disaster. The record serve as a head count of bodies and forensic analysis. And it is for insurance claims.

Apalah finance man tak tahu pasal insurans?

Wonder how will Danny response to the press on the Mumbai incident.

No response means something. A response means something selse. How it is responded means really something. We are looking if there is an agenda to stifle MAS in order to justify the makan swap and CCF.

Probably Danny better let his office nannies - Dato Ahmad Jauhari and Tan Sri Mohd Nor Yusof - speak. Both are entitled for first class seats.

By the way, there is another group that used to abuse by regularly seeking to upgrade seat. They buy economy or business class ticket and ask for upgrade to first.

It is the royalties.

We'll name one compulsive up-grader: Negeri Sembilan's Tengku Dara Naquiah. No fear of any royal retribution from her, do we?

15 comments:

jack1960 said...

Outsourcing inappropriate solution

Sacrilege to outsource engineering for a transport company period. Safety, reliability & cost control must be the ultimate priority, not just cost-cutting & dependence on other people. Cost control & cost cutting, 2 very different concepts.Lives of passengers & airline's reputation are at stake here.Indonesian example when insurance issues got indonesian carriers banned from Europe. Reputation takes decades to build but can be lost in a split second, very high stakes.

Cargo operations too, synonymous with carrier operations, under-belly or freighter. Another source of income. Outsourcing here means no control & dependence on biznes transaction with 3rd party. No such thing as hollow underbelly.

Outsourcing of engineering & cargo not wise. Messing around with biznes models needs experience & integrity, not just profit motive....

Anonymous said...

If it had been some other staff, they would have been a discipline enquiry, but not for danny ...

WHat is the point of having disciplinary enquiry when the deputy managing director have no respect for rules and regulations

Anonymous said...

After having so many "brick"bats hitting him, danny boy must be shitting bricks....quite regularly now. Question is how long more will he lasts?

Jasper Bloodstone said...
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A Voice said...

Jasper Bloodstone

Dont mixed-up blogs and newspaper.

Why dont you get the comments from aviation industry consultants and experts and come back to us?

All those companies you mention started out as a subsidiary of SIA and move on to get listed as the income diversified and less dependent on SIA.

MAS had done the subsidiarisation during the time of Tajuddin Ramli. Perhaps Tajuddin was looking at similar model with a slight Malaysian twist.

Unlike SIA, MAS lose control over the subsidiary when it was hived off and does not benefit from it's growth.

What is more upsetting, it goes to hands that does not serve the interest of MAS. There is loss of control on cost and declining quality due to long term contracts.

The shareholders of companies taking over the outsourced subsidiary is seldom not known.

Only now do we know that Azman Yahya got the IT soutsourcing.

With poor communication and the shroud of mysteries, it is scary the way they do things!

Jasper Bloodstone said...
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A Voice said...

Jasper Bloodstone

"A slight Malaysian twist", eh? What, exactly, do you mean by that phrase?

SIA Engineering and SATS have to bid against other players to provide services to the SIA Group.

There are 3 providers of ground handling services at Singapore's Changi Airport. How many are there at KLIA?

Ditto for in-flight catering, where there are 2 service providers at Changi.

Reply: You've answered me. Malaysian twist is usually doing things out of the norm. Sometimes it is to tailormade to local needs and culture. While at times, no one can fathom it.

It can be good but often it can be disastrous.

In those cases you mentioned, it is chicken and egg.

MAS needs the services and to cut cost through competition. But the former is more important than the latter since there is no other competitor.

But to outsource, the company wants surety to provide service. Thus end up cost more.


You have mentioned Tajudin Ramli. Did you mention the legal cases he got involved in after being bought out of MAS?

Reply: I have return extensively and very detail about it, I went down to describe the planned conspiracy against him.

If you had read the RPK version, you have been duped.

He got it from the crooked and corrupted duo lawyers and cops, Rosli Dahalan and Ramli Yusof.

The corrupted Tan Sri Robert Phang was with them. He quit when we exposed his attempted corrupt act. Lucky we did not release the video.

Salahuddin Ayub is shitting pants worried Tajuddin would sue him. Tajuddin already won an apology from TMI.

Bodohlah Panamera Deadwood for employing the Singaporean and PKR sympathiser, Rosli Dahalan. He lost andkept losing, yet he does not when to stop.

If Tajuddin had his way, he could bankrupt the Government for listening to Nor Yakcop. Maybe he could do on the PR Governemnt.

Sloppy work la all these people. After all Tajuddin bailed out Bank Negara in his purchase of MAS.

Read our back postings. Maybe you can help us coz we still have one or two loose ends untied and we are getting there.


In any case, the rot at MAS set in way before Tony Fernandes and AirAsia appeared on the horizon.

Reply: We do not have to let it continue, do we?

Cast your mind back to MAS's performance after the breakup of MSA back in the day. How many bailouts and restructurings has it gone through since then?

Reply: I am sure lots. But the ones prior to the 2002 is not significant and quite that relevant.

What do you think?

Perhaps you can share your view as to why things happen.

Anonymous said...

Jasper Bloodstone and Skillgannon: trollers of malaysian blogs who try to find the singapore angle, and gloat over how good that country is. Moderate these guys. If we Wanted sings bragging about how they're better at things, we'll just invite them here.What You're essentially doing is venting out sarcasm. Compare to white racist south africans, who keep saying how much better their countryd be if it was run by whites. Up yours, volunteers of the Sing Defense Force Cyberwing!

Anonymous said...

well actually the folks down south do manage their affairs pretty well. kudos to them, masters of the city-state.

the issue is the direct copy-catting by our own folks in using the spore templates as the panacea for all ills of the country.

malaysia is a COUNTRY, not a city-state. size, scale, issues, demographics, vision, desire etc...can NEVER be the same.

khazanah wants to be like temasek, current mas management wants to be like sia, they build universal studios, some goons here wants legoland...

jasper, skillgannon and other fans of spore should hit the road and live like a local for a few years, travelling the land.

and we hope they get it, one day.

Jasper Bloodstone said...
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Jasper Bloodstone said...
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A Voice said...

Jasper

You can't be looking at MAS as though it is another SIA in Singapore. You are behaving like American who calls the Champion of their national soccer league as world champion.

A Voice said...

And your reply on Tajuddin and Bank Negara shows you choose what you want to believe. I bet you didnt bother to read up what this blog had revealed. Even Ku Li use to highlight abt Bank Negara prblem.

Stick to commenting within the subject if thst is your attitude.

Typical kiasu myopic Singaporean.

Fanerai said...

Believe me, there are and there were enough nutheads in Malaysia's aviation industry. And that includes the nutheads in the government who had made many unsuccessful policies for the aviation industry. Just look at the so-uncalled aviation hub in Subang which is so far behind the aviation hub in Loyang, Singapore. Despite many years of failures, these non-aviators nutheads have learned nothing about aviation industry...and they know that they have one precious asset to unbundle...and that asset is the aviators in MAS engineering. So I wouldn't bet against these nutheads to go for WAU II coz they got nothing to lose (not even their job...coz if everything else fails they can still go back working with Khazanah or some other GLC).

Jasper Bloodstone said...
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