According to ATW, Malaysia Airlines may reactivate some of its stored Boeing 747-400s to cover when its Airbus A380s undergo maintenance.
http://atwonline.com/mro/malaysia-airlines-may-use-parked-747s-cover-a380s-mro
How many have they got stored? Were they intended to be WFU or sold on?
Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
Gotta wonder how a lessor hasn't got onto that market.
[Airlines with small A380 fleets looking equivalent scheduled maintenance cover.]
[Airlines with small A380 fleets looking equivalent scheduled maintenance cover.]
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
Where will the pilots come from?
No wonder the airlines is in dire straits if the tech crew are still on the books for a fleet that's been stored. Not to mention, parts, equipment, cabin crew training, ramp training etc...
No wonder the airlines is in dire straits if the tech crew are still on the books for a fleet that's been stored. Not to mention, parts, equipment, cabin crew training, ramp training etc...
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
I thought that they already had several more aircraft than their A380 route network required?
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- JerseyFlyer
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
Do they not have spare capacity within the 6 frames they have? I was under the impression that the 6 were substantially under-utilised.
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting Amiga500 (Reply 1): Gotta wonder how a lessor hasn't got onto that market. [Airlines with small A380 fleets looking equivalent scheduled maintenance cover.] |
Too small a market. There aren't that many customers with a small fleet of A380s. Most that do, have 747s or 777s they can use, or schedule maintenance in the quieter months when they dont need the A380s.
Failing that, there are plenty of options out there that can lease you a widebody aircraft, such as HiFly with their A340s.
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- winterlight
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting flywrite (Thread starter): Malaysia Airlines may reactivate some of its stored Boeing 747-400s to cover when its Airbus A380s undergo maintenance. |
Keep them going afterwards and sod the A380s! They're too big anyway.
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
If they only need 4 aircraft max for the LHR route, why the need for cover ?
Or are all the 380's going in for heavy checks in one go !!
Or are all the 380's going in for heavy checks in one go !!
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
Really odd.When they bought them ( not so long ago) they knew that they would require maintenance checks.Something does not add up.
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
Doesn't really sound like their A380 fleet is underutilized after all.
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- Flyingsottsman
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
Maybe the 748 would have been the better choice, than the 380s, I think Boeing missed the boat there.
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
THX Asiaflyer. But when you buy ( or sell) planes I would have thought that you took maintenance into account or one aircraft having a problem from time to time?You cannot run all 6 at 100% and wait for 'something' to happen.Clearly something will.
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- TheFlyingDisk
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting TC957 (Reply 7): If they only need 4 aircraft max for the LHR route, why the need for cover ? |
Probably to cover charters to JED to cater for the Umrah/Haj market.
| Quoting smi0006 (Reply 2): Where will the pilots come from? |
They still have the 744F though, so I would think they can spare a pilot or two.
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
There's little room in the A333 fleet for charter work & there have been some crew constraints in the past. With the B772 fleet retired the A380 is now the only type with enough slack in scheduling to take on extra work which is likely to be for the Umrah/Haj operation.
Believe only 2 B744s are still stored, being 9M-MPN & 9M-MPP. The rest of the fleet has long moved on.
Mind you, all this has been done before but when the B744s were reactivated maintenance delays caused some significant disruptions to the Haj operations & some flights from LHR were delayed because crew shortages meant no crews could be positioned in advance so the incoming crews required minimum rest before being able to operate the return flight. One would hope lessons were learned but those B744s are really getting on & require quite some reactivation work to be done.
There is still a 747 techcrew pool which can easily be drawn from, all currently operating the B744F. Same applies to a small parts supply, otherwise to be ordered if the need arises. Cabin crew can take a refresher course at own training facilities which can be done within 2 days. So it can be done. If it's the wisest decision is an entirely different question.
Believe only 2 B744s are still stored, being 9M-MPN & 9M-MPP. The rest of the fleet has long moved on.
Mind you, all this has been done before but when the B744s were reactivated maintenance delays caused some significant disruptions to the Haj operations & some flights from LHR were delayed because crew shortages meant no crews could be positioned in advance so the incoming crews required minimum rest before being able to operate the return flight. One would hope lessons were learned but those B744s are really getting on & require quite some reactivation work to be done.
| Quoting smi0006 (Reply 2): Where will the pilots come from? No wonder the airlines is in dire straits if the tech crew are still on the books for a fleet that's been stored. Not to mention, parts, equipment, cabin crew training, ramp training etc... |
There is still a 747 techcrew pool which can easily be drawn from, all currently operating the B744F. Same applies to a small parts supply, otherwise to be ordered if the need arises. Cabin crew can take a refresher course at own training facilities which can be done within 2 days. So it can be done. If it's the wisest decision is an entirely different question.
RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting TheFlyingDisk (Reply 13): They still have the 744F though, so I would think they can spare a pilot or two. |
Of course! Idiot me completely forgot about them!
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- johnclipper
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
There are still 3 MH 777s on hand in KUL as of a week ago. Full titles, etc.
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- terrificturk
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting Flyingsottsman (Reply 11): |
erm, why wld the 748 be a better choice ? Because they do not require maintenance ?
MAS was always a very badly and inefficient run airline and seems little has changed... if you can fill and earn on an A380, a 772 is not the best replacement, albeit better than none.
The entire fleet planning is a mess and shortsighted at best... so reactivating a phased-out type is more costly than leasing in capacity to cover maintenance gaps.
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- BlueShamu330s
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting johnclipper (Reply 16): There are still 3 MH 777s on hand in KUL as of a week ago. Full titles, etc. |
Indeed.
 |
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- TheFlyingDisk
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
| Quoting terrificturk (Reply 17): The entire fleet planning is a mess and shortsighted at best... so reactivating a phased-out type is more costly than leasing in capacity to cover maintenance gaps. |
I don't think the costs of reactivating the pax 744 would be that costly simply because it wasn't totally phased out from MH - during the first A380 C-Check phase in 2014 the 747 was used as a standby/reliever aircraft, and it was also used to bring the Malaysian team to Ukraine during the MH17 accident. Plus as stated MH still has 2x 744F in operation so flight crews are readily available & parts are still lurking in the hangar somewhere.
| Quoting johnclipper (Reply 16): There are still 3 MH 777s on hand in KUL as of a week ago. Full titles, etc. |
777 flight crews have already dispersed either to the 330 fleet, other airlines, or unemployment.
[Edited 2016-03-10 02:22:38]
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- TheFlyingDisk
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RE: Malaysia May Reactivate 747s For A380 Cover
So, not only will they reactivate the 747 - it will be wearing a Retro livery!
http://twitter.com/b16722/status/710675845652684800
http://twitter.com/b16722/status/710675845652684800
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