News
MAB to replace A380s with A350s in 2018
June 10th 2016
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) will replace its six A380s with six leased A350-900s from Air Lease Corporation (ALC) from June 2018, the carrier’s outgoing CEO, Christoph Mueller, told ATW. Read More »
“We discussed the disposal of the A380s a year ago and it was premature. We will phase them out in 2018,” said Mueller. MAB this week confirmed that in the near- and medium- future it plans to use the A380 on charter services from China to Sabah and on hajj/umrah flights to Jeddah and Medina.
“The great thing about using an A380 for chartered business is that our cost per seat is very effective [and] provides 500 seats that will be fully taken up,” said MAB CCO, Paul Simmons.
MAB and Lufthansa Technik last week agreed to establish a joint venture MRO facility for A320 and B737 aircraft at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Subject to regulatory approvals and the signing of definitive agreements, the centre will offer base maintenance services for single-aisle aircraft from 2017.
In other Malaysian news, new-kid-on-the-block, Johar Bahru-based flymojo, has missed a May 30 deadline to obtain an air operator’s certificate from Malaysia’s Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) because it did not fulfil the minimum one aircraft requirement. This raises concerns about the carrier’s seriousness, especially about a Letter of Intent for up to 40 Bombardier CS100s signed last March.
