Intra-Asia 2015 Part 1: Malindo Air & Firefly

[Carfield]

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.

[Carfield]

Boarding began early at 8:42am and there was no separate priority boarding. The load was light enough.



First impression of the business class cabin – very nice with three rows of four-abreast recliner seats! I like the cream and beige color scheme with the burgundy pillow. For a narrowbody aircraft, the seats are very comfortable and I even like it a bit better than Malaysia’s latest generation of J seats on its 737s. Power ports are available, and there was a PTV.



A beverage of my choice was offered prior to departure. (Served in paper cup, but Malindo Air branded)

Reading materials are limited to the newspapers at the seat pocket, as well as the safety card. Malindo Air does not seem to have an in-flight magazine. A bit surprising given how aggressive the branding is – even the disposal bag has the Malindo Air brand!



To my surprise, I was the only revenue passenger in business class, and economy class looked like 1/3 filled with mostly everyone in the back. There was a technician joining me in the J cabin after the door was closed.

For some reasons, door was not closed after everyone was boarded. I took the opportunity to snap a few photos of the cabin, especially a quiet one!

Business Class cabin



Economy Class cabin – the seats look very comfortable (especially after experiencing Thai Lion Air economy a few days later)

[Carfield]

Malindo Air’s business class pillow – not the flimsy one used in US domestic flights


Snap of an Air Asia A320 parked next door


Door was closed at 9:05am, and we pushed back two minutes later.

We took off from R/W33 at 9:18am. Flying time was a short forty-four minutes with a cruising altitude of 30,000feet. The route took us passed Sitawan and then traveling along the West Coast of Malaysia.



Seat belt sign was turned off at 9:24am, and the F/A passed out a pair of noise-canceling headsets for me. I was surprised that they bothered turning on the IFE. There were the usual selection of movies and television shows. However, the system was automatically turned off 15 minutes prior to arrival, and I could not even finish an episode of Big Bang Theory.


With a $80 price tag, I did not expect much in the catering department, but even I felt these four tiny finger sandwiches a bit underwhelming. Two are cheese sandwiches, and the other two are some kind of vegetable slaw/spread filled. Beverage choices were limited and no diet soda was offered. I decided to stick with orange juice, and despite all the linens, chinaware and silverware, beverages were served in paper cups. I felt that Malindo Air either had cut back, or was still not able to grasp a perfect formula on what to offer in an affordable business class cabin. I honestly will suggest serving something like a fresh fruit plate and a full sized muffin and pastry. If they want to serve sandwiches, they should either make these sandwiches larger or add a dessert (yogurt for breakfast) component or side fruit bowl. I can live without all these fancy linen or silverware, if I can get a heartier snack. The F/A was pretty proactive in offering beverages.





After the quick snack service, I took the opportunity to snap a series of pictures describing the features of Malindo Air’s business class seat.

Back of seats (note that there was no underseat stowage because of the IFE box)



Power port


Four functions to control the comfort of the seat – recline/lumbar/legrest/extended legrest – two more than MH’s current new generation of business class seats on its 737s

[Carfield]

Handset console


IFE here



USB port here/headset plug


In addition to the IFE personal units, there are drop down screens featuring the Sky Map throughout the flight!


Overhead panel



Seat in full recline position – they are reasonable




Descent soon began at 9:43am, and it was a beautiful day in Langkawi.

[Carfield]

We landed on R/W03 at 10:02am, and parked at stand 2 three minutes later.


Langkawi Main Terminal



Finally shot of 9M-LNJ after arriving Langkawi





So how about Malindo Air economy class cabin service? Don’t worry! I flew one of its ATR-72-600s services back from Langkawi to Subang Airport. I am very excited about the return flight, as I finally get to fly the latest version of the ATR 72 family. Malindo Air operates only the newer ATR 72-600s (no need to worry about getting stuck with the ‘older’ -500 series) on a network of flights out from Subang Airport, and competes directly against Firefly, which is related to Malaysian Airlines and is more established at Subang Airport.


OD 1401 LGK-SZB Lv1145 Arr1300 ATR 72-600 9M-LMK


Check-in at Langkawi was fairly casual, as mid-morning was not a particularly busy time. Air Asia was busier, as it operates a whole range of flights to other Malaysian cities like Penang and Johor Bahru, on top of its frequent flights to KLIA. The agent was very friendly. Since I paid 5MYR ($1.40USD) for seat assignment, I did not need to say much. For the ATRs, the better seats are in the aft, as the passenger entrance was in the back.


Departure screen – mostly domestic flights on AK/FF/MH/OD

[Carfield]

Our aircraft arrived early from Subang, and boarding soon began at 11:20am from gate 2. It was actually quite a long walk towards stand “4,” especially under this hot weather. But I don’t mind, as I got to snap some pictures.


Almost forget boarding was done according to zone printed on your boarding pass, and they strictly enforced the boarding order due to the particular way the ATR exit was located. They turned away passengers, who were not boarding with the correct zone.

Malaysian Airlines 737 next door


9M-LMK



The F/A was greeting everyone, as we boarded the flight.

Few pictures of the cabin








The new ATR-72-600 looks smart and the leather seats are pretty nice for a regional carrier, despite I prefer Firefly’s version, which will be covered next. Legroom was around 31-32 inches. I got the exit row, but not sure if there was particularly more spacious. However, it was nice to get an empty seat next to me though.

The only reading material in the seat pocket – safety card

[Carfield]

My seat 1F



Tray table


Overhead panel with the “no electronic device” sign turned on



Door was closed at 11:42am and we pushed back right on the spot at 11:45am.
We took off from R/W21 at 11:50am for our fifty-eight minutes flight to Kuala Lumpur Sultan Abdul Aziz Shah (commonly known as Subang) airport.

Lovely shots of the turboprop


Our routing took us over Penang, and then Ipoh and onto Batu Gajah and then onto Subang airport. We stayed at 15,000feet most of the flight.




Unlike Lion Air, complimentary light refreshment was offered on this Malindo Air turboprop flight. A cup of water and a pack of milk flavored wheat cookies were passed out. It was nothing fancy, but better than nothing.



Descent began at 12:34pm, and we landed on Subang airport’s R/W15 at 12:48pm. We parked at stand 35 at 12:51pm, and Subang airport was a very compact airport, which was very different from the gigantic KLIA.

[Carfield]

As you can tell, Firefly is the largest tenant here.



FY 2076 SZB-KBR Lv1540 Arr1645 ATR 72-600 9M-FIC


I have actually flown Firefly before, as Firefly acquired a small fleet of Boeing 737s to begin LCC service from KLIA to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu. Of course they could not compete with its own mother company Malaysia Airlines and Air Asia low cost service. The 737 services were soon dropped, and they once again concentrated on their ATR operations in and out of Subang airport.

I purposely booked a Firefly ATR flight, so I could compare it with Malindo Air’s ATR operation. Both use mono-class ATR 72s and despite similar fare and plane, Firefly definitely is more successful with a smart brand and better in-flight experience. I bought a flyPremier ticket, which offers extra 10kg of baggage, one free flight change, and free seat assignment (and access to the preferred seat in the aft cabin, which allow speedier deplaning). The ticket costs $55USD, so it was a nice price for some additional insurance.

Check-in area is small, as only two major airlines fly in and out of here.


I did not enter this area though, as I chose to use the self-check-in kiosk, which was pretty easy to operate.


The airport was really small and I was feeling a bit sick this afternoon, so I stayed at the Peugeot lounge (priority pass lounge and also for those who owned this brand of car).

The airport was so small and the boarding area was a huge holding room. Security lines were shorter than normal on these mid-afternoon hours.



Once again boarding was divided between the front and aft section, and they were strict with the boarding orders.


Yes I scored an ATR 72-600 – 9M-FIC – lovely livery

[Carfield]

Sorry for the limited cabin pictures, as I was not feeling too well. The flight was also fairly full too.




Door was closed at 3:35pm and we took off from R/W15 at 3:48pm. Flying time was fifty-four minutes, and our cruising altitude was 15,000feet. We flew towards Rawang, and passed Gua Musang, Tanah Merah, and Pasir Mas, before landing at Kota Bharu Sultan Ismail Petra airport.


In-flight magazine and safety card



The flight service was definitely friendlier than Malindo Air. No trolley was used during this short flight, and the first F/A came out with a basket of snacks, which was a choice of peanuts or chocolate cake, and then the second F/A came out with tray of beverages, which include a choice of apple juice or soya milk. You can request water. I like the branding. The chocolate cake was not bad.



The flight went by fairly quickly and the aft cabin seems to be quieter than the front section. Descent soon began at 4:26pm and we landed on R/W10 at 4:42pm. We parked at stand “5” at 4:46pm.



Farewell shot of 9M-FIC

[Carfield]

I flew Air Asia back to KUL later, and chose not to take any more pictures. Kota Bharu airport was really not that interesting, and Air Asia was well documented in all these forums. But I really understand why most passengers prefer Air Asia because it really runs an efficient and a smooth operation, and you really know what you are getting. The F/As are mostly young and they might not be super friendly. They got their jobs done.

In conclusion, I am very impressed with these domestic flights in Malaysia. They are all on time, if not early. The staffs are mostly efficient and polite. Malindo Air offers an interesting hybrid product, but its business class, despite a significant lower price tag from MH, still needs to work on providing a better product. Catering is unacceptable and I just don’t understanding using all these fancy chinaware and silverware, just to offer four pieces of finger sandwiches. No wonder no one was buying Malindo Air’s business class tickets on these short intra-Malaysian domestic flights. I think I got my money worth because I was the only passenger LOL. Anyway, for its ATR operation, it is a reasonable flight, but compared to Firefly, there is just no comparison. In the future, I will definitely not hesitate to fly Firefly again.

The next installment will be a revisit of Air Asia X, Air Asia’s Malaysian long haul subsidiary.


Carfield

[SQflyergirl]

Ah home. Thank you Carfield - I've flown them all countless times, but it's still nice to look. Why did you go to KBR though? I've been there 50-60 times but it was always on work, and there's not much else to do there.

[Carfield]

I just flew to KBR because of the schedule and fares... I flew right back to KUL on Air Asia two hours after our arrival into KBR.

Thanks for reading my trip report though!

Carfield

[yflyer]

Thanks for the TR, Carfield!

Your TR has given me the first glimpse of the inside of KLIA2.

The Malindo budget J product puts intra-Europe J on full service carriers to shame!