Malaysia Airlines announces new A380

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will take delivery of the first of six Airbus A380 superjumbo jets on June 19, nine years after placing the order, and will start thrice weekly operations from Kuala Lumpur to London on July 1st.

The aircraft is currently undergoing the finishing touches in Hamburg, Germany, said MAS acting head of strategic communications, Nor Zalida Ahmad. Unlike the previous blue and red stripes, The body paint of the double deck super jumbo will now have three blue variant stripes with intermittent silver lining in the mid section of the white body.

"Starting from July 1, MAS will operate three flights a week on the Kuala Lumpur-London route, and then increase the frequency to daily from Aug 25 with the delivery of its second A380. The third and fourth A380s (which MAS will take possession in August and September, respectively) will be used to fly between Kuala Lumpur and Sydney," MAS head of customer experience, Datuk Salleh Ahmad Tabrani, told a media briefing here yesterday.

"As for our fifth and sixth A380s (which are due for delivery in October this year and February 2013), we have not decided which routes they will be deployed to. Our strategy team is currently crunching the numbers and doing market studies and will decide their flight destinations in a few months," he said.

The A380s will be able to carry 494 passengers in a three-class configuration, comprising eight first class seats and 350 economy class seats on the main deck, together with 66 business class seats and 70 economy class seats on the upper deck.

The First Class cabin has a luxurious seat pitch of 85 inches with 87 inch full flat bed seats complemented with individual 23 inch inflight entertainment (IFE) screens whilst the Business Class cabin features a seat pitch of 74 inches and full flat bed seats each measuring 72 inches in length together with individual 17-inch IFE screens.

The Economy class seats with an 18-inch seat width and recline of 6 inches, have a seat pitch of 32 inches and individual IFE screens measuring 10.6 inches. In-seat laptop charging facilities are available on every seat in First and Business Class. In Economy, laptop charging facilities are shared by every 2 seats

The aircraft is fitted with the Thales entertainment system, with fully customised Graphic User Interface specific for quick navigation and seat in all classes is equipped with USB port and satellite telephone facility.

Operated by a cabin crew team of 18 members for inflight delivery of the unique Malaysian Hospitality, customers travelling on Malaysia Airlines’ A380 will be treated to a fine selection of Malaysian and International cuisines with lighter and healthier-concept meals. For the first time, the ‘Chef-on-Call’ facility, currently available to First Class passengers of Malaysia Airlines, will also be available for Business Class passengers of the A380 as an extension of the airline’s renowned Branded Customer Experience.

MAS senior vice-president (marketing and promotions) Al-Ishsal Ishak said the new A380s will spot a new logo colour scheme and livery to signify its transformation into a premium airline. However, the colour scheme and livery of its existing aircraft will remain unchanged for now.

"For an airline like MAS, we have multiple types of aircraft in our fleet on different routes. For each route, we cater to different types of market segments. We have to match our aircraft and products to the market segments that we target for that specific route. Thus, the way we design our products and services will have to be different," said Salleh.

"As of today, (for example,) we still serve meal boxes (pre-packed meals) on some of our domestic and regional routes for practical reasons," he added.

As to the fares on MAS' A380s to London, Al-Ishsal said they will carry a "slight premium of about 5-10%" to those on its B747 aircraft. "However, they (fares) are still a far cry from our competitors."