MAS provide flight A380 Brisbane-KUL

Malaysia Airlines will introduce its all-new Airbus A330-300 onto Brisbane-Kuala Lumpur flights from April 20th.

MAS has fifteen factory-fresh A330s on order, all of which will sport the same stylish livery seen on this aircraft, with red and blue stripes soaring up the sides of the plane to trail off into the sky (instead of running horizontally along the lower half of the fuselage).

Priced at $222 million each, the A330-300 order is part of an extensive fleet renewal program. This also includes Malaysia Airlines' first Airbus A380 due in April 2012 and which will also debut the airline's first premium economy cabin among its massive 508 seat capacity (50 more than Qantas and second only to Lufthansa and Air France in maxing out the super-jumbo's load).

Each of the new A330s has a revamped interior with variable mood lighting across all cabins and more spacious overhead baggage compartments. Every seat is equipped with AC power and USB socket for keeping laptops and tablets charged up during the flight.

A Malaysia Airlines spokeswoman confirmed with Australian Business Traveller that the business class cabin would continue sport the same 2-2-2 configuration as on the older A330s it replaces, rather than the despised middle seat of a tighter-fit 2-3-2 layout. There will be 36 seats in business class and 247 in economy.

Business class passengers can also enjoy MAS' Golden Lounge at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, which travel guidebook company Frommers rates as one of the world's best airline lounges.

Malaysia Airlines offer five times a week direct services from Brisbane to Kuala Lumpur with convenient onward connections to over 100 destinations. All five services will be operated by the new A330-300 aircraft.

The A330 will appear on all five weekly flights between Brisbane and the Malaysian capital.

The northbound MH134 service departs from Brisbane every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 11.20pm, arriving in Kuala Lumpur at 5.45am the next morning. The return flight MH135 leaves Kuala Lumpur on the same days at 9.20am to reach Brisbane by 7.40pm.

MAS has been giving the Australian market plenty of attention of late, only last month boosting its flights between Adelaide and Kuala Lumpur to six times per week.

The airline also came in ahead of Qantas for customer satisfaction in the latest Roy Morgan survey, with 85% of passengers reporting they were either ‘very satisfied’ or ‘fairly satisfied' with their experiences on Malaysia Airlines.

source: Australian business Travels

A380 Air France Jet Accident

Los Angeles Times

The National Transportation Safety Board plans to investigate what happened Monday night when a huge Air France A380 jet clipped a smaller aircraft at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, CNN reported Tuesday. No one was reported injured in the incident.

The A380, the world's biggest passenger jet, collided with the tail of a Delta Connection Comair Bombardier CRJ-700 while taxiing to the runway for takeoff, CNN said. The Delta plane had earlier arrived from Boston.

CNN correspondent Jim Bittermann, who was on the Air France flight headed to Paris, said that he felt a slight rumble as his plane was moving on the ground Monday at about 8:15 p.m. The pilot then stopped the aircraft, and eventually fire department crews surrounded it and the other plane, CNN reported.

Both planes sustained some damage.

The much-heralded A380, sporting wings almost as long as a football field, has proven to be a mixed blessing for some airports, which have had to adapt to its heft. Reporting in 2009, Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Weikel wrote of LAX:

"Service roads, taxiways and runways must be closed to airfield trucks, cars and other commercial aircraft as the world's largest passenger plane -- with wings almost as long as a football field -- arrives, departs and taxis with an official escort of operations vehicles.

"The plane is so immense that air traffic controllers give it priority so it doesn't have to wait for takeoff at the end of the airport's southern runways in cloudy or foggy weather because it can disrupt radio signals from the airport's instrument landing system."

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And dont forget about the humor version ...

R44 crash- Police inspector died (Updated)

KAMPAR 14 Dec : A police inspector was killed when the helicopter he was piloting on a training flight crashed and burst into flames in a mining area in Malim Nawar, 45km from here, Tuesday.

Inspector Mohd Shukri Othman, 31, died on the spot in the accident which occurred around 3 pm, said Kampar police chief Supt Abdul Aziz Salleh.

He said Mohd Shukri, who was attached to the Bukit Aman police headquarters, was on a solo flight from the flight training centre in Ipoh in a Robinson 44 (R-44) helicopter.

The body of the inspector, who hailed from Kepala Batas, Penang, was sent to the Kampar Hospital, he said.

Mohd Shukri, who leaves behind a wife and a child, had started his helicopter pilot training in the middle of this year, he added.

Firemen put out the fire at the crash site. - Bernama

Latest announcement by EASA on A380

Yesterday, EASA through issued on Emergency Airworthiness Directive(EAD) had announce that all A380 that uses the Trent 900 engine are allowed to fly but under the following condition.

The incident investigation continues. However inspection data from in-service engines has been gathered and analysed. The results show the need to amend the inspection procedures required by the EAD of 11 November 2010, retaining the inspection of the air buffer cavity and focusing on the oil service tubes within the high pressure and intermediary pressure structure.
This EASA directive still makes it mandatory for airlines operating Airbus A380 aircraft equipped with Trent 900 engines to perform repetitive inspections, a first one within a maximum of 10 flights, then at intervals not exceeding 20 flights. If any discrepancy is found following these inspections, further engine operation shall be prohibited.
The requirements of this EAD are considered interim action as the investigation led by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau is yet to deliver its final conclusions.( http://easa.europa.eu/home.php)

Looks like Rolls Royce company have no time to waste. Everything that related to the Trent 900 has to be conduct detail and seriously, followed by the incident on Qantas A380 . Besides, they are also put at risk by involving their sharing partners that work together on developing the Trent 900.

Today, Rolls Royce has developing variants of the Trent 900.

Does this will affect other variants then?