Aviation: MAS - Qantas Staff Monitored Work

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) said yesterday that when Qantas sent one of its B737-400 aircraft to Malaysia Airlines Engineering & Maintenance (MAS E&M) in Subang for a heavy maintenance check (HMC) in May, the Australian carrier had also sent 12 of its own engineering personnel to oversee activities carried out on the aircraft.

"They constantly monitored and audited all HMC activities throughout the check and reported those items which they felt needed improvement," MAS said in response to reports in the Australian media that a Qantas jet had been grounded on Thursday despite a maintenance check in Malaysia earlier.

The Australian media alleged that the Qantas aircraft returned from Malaysia with 95 defects.

"All the problems were rectified to the satisfaction of the Qantas team before the aircraft was delivered to Australia. The Qantas team had been very helpful to our personnel to ensure the maintenance standards of Qantas were strictly observed," said MAS senior general manager E&M, Mohd Roslan Ismail.

With regard to the "string of faults" reported in the Australian media, MAS said its E&M team investigated and established that they were unsubstantiated.

"This is based on the fact that all these aspects were originally checked and found to be free from defect during the maintenance check-and-test flight, with the concurrence of the Qantas team."

As for the case of a Qantas flight attendant experiencing a static/mild electric shock, MAS said E&M had investigated and identified the root cause of the issue.

The media had also alleged that a galley was badly installed, posing a fire risk.

MAS said although it was not possible to ascertain if the defect originated from the HMC work at MAS E&M, this issue had been incorporated as an additional monitoring initiative for future work to eliminate such instances from recurring on all aircraft handled by MAS E&M.

MAS E&M is a certified approved Maintenance & Repair Organisation by the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation, European Aviation Safety Agency and the US Federal Aviation Administration .

Meanwhile, Bernama reports that a Qantas jet grounded in Melbourne on Thursday because of noise from an air-conditioning fault, was the same plane that returned from routine maintenance in Malaysia two months ago.

The Canberra-bound Boeing 737 jet returned to the terminal and passengers were transferred to another plane, finally leaving Melbourne 90 minutes later.

A Qantas spokesman said QF850 had problems with an air- conditioning duct unit while taxiing towards the runway. She also confirmed that, as with any maintenance work undertaken overseas, the work was carried out with supervision by Qantas Australian engineers.

The 737 had been back in service for seven weeks after the defects were repaired, she said.

The incident was the latest in a recent run of setbacks for Qantas. The spate of problems started last month when an explosion ripped a hole in the fuselage of a Qantas jet en route from Hong Kong to Melbourne, forcing an emergency landing at Manila.

Last week, a domestic flight was forced to return to Adelaide after a wheel bay door failed to close.

A Qantas Boeing 767 flight turned back to make an emergency landing at Sydney airport on Aug 2 after a hydraulic fluid leak was discovered.

On Monday, a jet was grounded for almost three hours after a technical fault was discovered in a pre-flight inspection at Sydney airport.

(c) 2008 New Straits Times. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.

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Aviation: Rising costs spell gloom for regional airlines

Analyst says MAS, AirAsia are stronger than many of them

CATHAY Pacific Airways Ltd - Asia’s third largest carrier by market value - raised enough red flags over the past few months over the tough times it was facing due to rising fuel cost and would report a loss in the first half of 2008. But what it announced yesterday caught many by surprise; it was its first loss in five years.

Much of the loss was due to higher fuel prices as “Cathay had not hedged enough and fuel cost just went up higher.” The carrier also had to make a HK$468mil provision for a fine in the US to resolve an investigation into price fixing by air cargo carriers in June.

Cathay reported first half loss of HK$663mil (US$85mil) versus a net income of HK$2.58bil in 2007. This may be its first loss in five years but it is only half of HK$1.24bil the airline lost in 2003 following the outbreak of SARS.

This time around Cathay did not raise airfares as much as other global carriers despite doubling its fuel surcharges for long haul travel. Cathay only had 30% of its fuel requirements hedged.

In comparison, Asia’s most profitable airline, Singapore Airlines (SIA), hedged 60% of its fuel. Yet SIA also reported lower earnings. Its net profit was 15% lower to S$358mil for second quarter ended June 2008. That was also the second consecutive decline in quarterly profit.

The drop in profit is understandable as the airline industry is in turmoil due to a slowing global economy, higher fuel prices and low demand for air travel.

MAS and AirAsia aircraft sit parked at KL International Airport - AFP. MAS hedges 43% of its oil for 2008 and an analyst estimates that it will report between RM20mil and RM50mil profit for the second quarter.

Cathay chairman Christopher Pratt believes “the industry will not survive in its current form,’’ given the higher fuel cost and slowing demand. He said “global aviation was making a painful adjustment to the new reality of 100-plus US dollar oil.’’

Crude oil prices fell to below US$120 a barrel yesterday after a record high of US$147 in July. Jet fuel is down from its high of US$181 a barrel on July 3.

The International Air Transport Association on Monday said passenger demand grew at is slowest pace in five years in June and warned the situation could get worse with consumer and business confidence falling amid persistently higher oil prices.

Cathay is not the first carrier to have reported a loss and it won't be the last. In fact, 25 airlines have gone bankrupt since the beginning of this year, and more casualties and losses can be expected.

But amid all the gloom, a Malaysian analyst is pretty confident Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and AirAsia Bhd will do better than many airlines in the region.

MAS has 43% of its oil hedged for 2008 and the analyst estimates that MAS will report a small profit of between RM20mil and RM50mil for the second quarter.

As for AirAsia, the analyst said the airline may be facing tough times operationally but “they could beef up their P&L (profit and loss) and could recognise the proceeds of an aircraft disposal. This could strengthen their P&L.’’

“We believe MAS and AirAsia are stronger than some carriers in the region.’’

Click here Rising costs spell gloom for regional airlines
Malaysia Star, Malaysia

The future of aviation industry is Bleak.

Petrol price hike set the snowball down. Everything will be pushed down or aside. Idris is telling everyone about it...


" An open letter to customers from the Managing Director and CEO of Malaysia Airlines, Idris Jala, has publicised his dire predictions as to the state of the industry, going as far as forecasting potential collapse.

He claimed that the global airline industry may witness fares rising by as much as half, capacity cut by a quarter, and all of this a looming reality, even with costs cut by a tenth.
Idris pointed to a need for more mergers and acquisitions between carriers, and warned of potential collapse unless ‘drastic’ changes occur, and quickly.
His warning was immensely pessimistic, claiming that more and more airlines were likely to be “forced out of business, while the majority of us are going to bleed red ink yet again.”

Read further: Travel Blackboard (press release), Australia-