Hi all,
This new series of trip reports is based on my recent travels in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand, and the purpose of this trip is to experience as many new airlines as possible, and fly to many interesting airports. This trip report will involve some airlines that are rather unfamiliar to most travelers living outside of these respective countries. As an aviation enthusiast, it was a fun experience. There were definitely some high and low points, but I think LCCs are here to stay in Asia and will perhaps the main force in the industry. Without LCCs, many local people possibly don’t get to fly that often and to travel around the country so much. It is also interesting to compare various airports between Malaysia and Thailand, and Malaysia really takes the concept of shopping mall to a new height with the klia2 that services its major low cost carriers. Honestly without all the airline related structures, you feel like that you are stepping into another shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, rather than flying to somewhere near or far. I have divided the trip report into four parts: Malaysian LCCs, a revisit of Air Asia X “business” class, V-Air, and Thai LCCs and domestic startups. I hope you will enjoy the trip report!
Part One focuses on short haul Malaysian LCCs – Malindo Air and Firefly.
Photo album of the full aviation experience of my trip with various Malaysian LCCs
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...iaLCCApril2015
April 20, 2015
OD 2204 KUL-LGK Lv0900 Arr1005 Boeing 737-900ER 9M-LNJ
So what is Malindo Air? Malindo Air is a Malaysian airline created by Lion Air of Indonesia and National Aerospace & Defense Industries of Malaysia. According to Wikipedia, Malindo Air is Lion Air’s retaliation to Air Asia’s entry into the Indonesian market. Not sure how much it is true, but Malindo Air, IMHO, is one of the best Lion Air subsidiaries, as it actually offers a business class cabin, 32” of legroom in economy class, personal television for both cabins, free baggage allowance, and some kind of complimentary refreshment and beverages in economy class. But it is still a LCC but just a “premium” LCC.
Malindo Air offers some really attractive business class fares for its domestic flights, and for this one-way flight form Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi, the fare including tax was 283MYR ($80USD). It is a pretty good deal and I get a little bit of flexibility. The seats on its 737s look pretty good. The only thing is that there is no lounge access at all, but if you want a lounge experience, klia2 is pretty horrific. Klia2 is huge, and requires lots of walking. There are no lounges in the domestic piers/concourses/areas once passed the central security checkpoint, and the only Plaza Premium lounge locates in the gateway plaza outside of the check-in area. But given the long walking distance, you really can’t wait too long before going through security. Security checkpoint queue is not bad, but the walking is just crazy. Malindo Air uses mostly Pier K, which is already sort of close. Pier K is pretty sad looking with a few eateries and shops, and Malindo Air can easily set up a lounge, if it wants to. But I just don’t see them doing it anytime soon. However, I am still interested in experiencing Malindo Air’s domestic business class experience.
Malindo Air uses klia2, and it has check-in counters located in Aisle W, with two lanes dedicated to business class. As you could tell, it was not a busy day for Malindo Air, especially most of its flights to South Asia depart in the afternoon. There was no wait, and the agent was reasonably friendly. She handed my boarding pass with a smile wishing me a good flight.
Beginning the long journey to gate K14 this morning!
klia2
Pier K is really quiet, as Malindo Air really has limited domestic flight operations at KLIA.
In the end, I had nothing to do, so I decided to visit the restroom and then entered the secured gate area. The gate was opened a little bit before 8am, with the sole gate agent collecting boarding pass stubs and checking identities. The gate itself was fairly spacious, especially with our light load.
9M-LNJ – my first Malindo Air’s flight
Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but I did not have many choices.
This new series of trip reports is based on my recent travels in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Thailand, and the purpose of this trip is to experience as many new airlines as possible, and fly to many interesting airports. This trip report will involve some airlines that are rather unfamiliar to most travelers living outside of these respective countries. As an aviation enthusiast, it was a fun experience. There were definitely some high and low points, but I think LCCs are here to stay in Asia and will perhaps the main force in the industry. Without LCCs, many local people possibly don’t get to fly that often and to travel around the country so much. It is also interesting to compare various airports between Malaysia and Thailand, and Malaysia really takes the concept of shopping mall to a new height with the klia2 that services its major low cost carriers. Honestly without all the airline related structures, you feel like that you are stepping into another shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, rather than flying to somewhere near or far. I have divided the trip report into four parts: Malaysian LCCs, a revisit of Air Asia X “business” class, V-Air, and Thai LCCs and domestic startups. I hope you will enjoy the trip report!
Part One focuses on short haul Malaysian LCCs – Malindo Air and Firefly.
Photo album of the full aviation experience of my trip with various Malaysian LCCs
http://s1213.photobucket.com/user/Ca...iaLCCApril2015
April 20, 2015
OD 2204 KUL-LGK Lv0900 Arr1005 Boeing 737-900ER 9M-LNJ
So what is Malindo Air? Malindo Air is a Malaysian airline created by Lion Air of Indonesia and National Aerospace & Defense Industries of Malaysia. According to Wikipedia, Malindo Air is Lion Air’s retaliation to Air Asia’s entry into the Indonesian market. Not sure how much it is true, but Malindo Air, IMHO, is one of the best Lion Air subsidiaries, as it actually offers a business class cabin, 32” of legroom in economy class, personal television for both cabins, free baggage allowance, and some kind of complimentary refreshment and beverages in economy class. But it is still a LCC but just a “premium” LCC.
Malindo Air offers some really attractive business class fares for its domestic flights, and for this one-way flight form Kuala Lumpur to Langkawi, the fare including tax was 283MYR ($80USD). It is a pretty good deal and I get a little bit of flexibility. The seats on its 737s look pretty good. The only thing is that there is no lounge access at all, but if you want a lounge experience, klia2 is pretty horrific. Klia2 is huge, and requires lots of walking. There are no lounges in the domestic piers/concourses/areas once passed the central security checkpoint, and the only Plaza Premium lounge locates in the gateway plaza outside of the check-in area. But given the long walking distance, you really can’t wait too long before going through security. Security checkpoint queue is not bad, but the walking is just crazy. Malindo Air uses mostly Pier K, which is already sort of close. Pier K is pretty sad looking with a few eateries and shops, and Malindo Air can easily set up a lounge, if it wants to. But I just don’t see them doing it anytime soon. However, I am still interested in experiencing Malindo Air’s domestic business class experience.
Malindo Air uses klia2, and it has check-in counters located in Aisle W, with two lanes dedicated to business class. As you could tell, it was not a busy day for Malindo Air, especially most of its flights to South Asia depart in the afternoon. There was no wait, and the agent was reasonably friendly. She handed my boarding pass with a smile wishing me a good flight.
Beginning the long journey to gate K14 this morning!
klia2
Pier K is really quiet, as Malindo Air really has limited domestic flight operations at KLIA.
In the end, I had nothing to do, so I decided to visit the restroom and then entered the secured gate area. The gate was opened a little bit before 8am, with the sole gate agent collecting boarding pass stubs and checking identities. The gate itself was fairly spacious, especially with our light load.
9M-LNJ – my first Malindo Air’s flight
Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures, but I did not have many choices.
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