MAS will stop flying to Argentina & South Africa

In order to cut costs, Malaysia national carrier, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will stop flying to Johannersburg and Cape Town in South Africa and Buenos Aires in Argentina starting early next year. I heard from one of the employees of MAS told me that the load factor is good but the yield is bad due to lack of premium customers, Business Class and First Class. The reasons they are not flying with MAS because the products are outdated. Other carriers such as Emirates, Qatar Airways and Singapore Airlines which flies to that particular routes and offers full flat bed with the seats arrangement of 1-2-1 on business class makes the passenger feel so comfortable to fly them. In closer, MAS business class is angle lie flat bed with the seats arrangement of 2-3-2 which is pack and outdated. Besides that, MAS also faced another problem with some restrictions on their flights which they are not allow to pick passengers from Cape Town to Buenos Aires. Maybe MAS should transit with other cities instead Cape Town which don't have any restrictions on flights or working with government of Malaysia to sign bilateral agreement with government of South Africa for open skies.

Besides that, MAS will reduce flights to Dubai in stages until they operate twice weekly due to load factor problem. They will also stop flying to Damman which transit in Dubai. In closer, Emirates, the national carrier of UAE offers 17 flights weekly from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur and even operate the world's biggest aircraft to Kuala Lumpur on certain days. The problem which I can identify is products offering resulting poor load factor. The products offering cover in-flight entertainment and premium products such as business class and first class. The current aircraft only offer small PTV and not fully flat bed on business class.

You Should & Shouldn't...

When you have a bigger competitor, you should:-

1) Your products should not be at the par with your main competitors but it should be better than your competitors in terms of pricing and quality. For example, Telco M offer RM0.10 per SMS and you shouldn't offer at RM0.10 per SMS because it does not attract the customers. When you offer RM0.08 per SMS and both offers the same quality of network coverage, people will use your service despite losing RM0.02 per SMS but at the end your loss of RM0.02 can attract more customers. Subsequently your loss can be covered with the increasing number of customers. Another example, when Airlines M offers same products as you offered, you shouldn't be at the par with your competitor especially your competitor has a good reputation. What makes customers to fly with you if both airlines have the same products. So market diversification equals into 50%-50% or even lower. You gain less customers as compared with your competitor.But when you have better products than your competitors, the market diversification is 50% and above. You gain more market shares! So better invest more and you get more customers in return.

2) Marketing: Advertise your products in tv commercials and mainstream magazines and newspapers that suits with target group of people.

3) Social media: Use Facebook and twitter to market your products, promotions etc or even as a medium tools to get feedback from your customers to improve your products in the future.

MAS Could Take Opportunity on Qantas's Fleets Grounding

October 29, 2011 - Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) could take this opportunity to market their brands, products and services when Qantas (the national carrier of Australia) grounded its entire fleets. There is a several way how to improve MAS presence in Australia. Which are:-

1) Market their brands and products since there is a huge number of passengers travelling to Europe and Asian countries from Australia.
2) MAS could act as a feeder for Qantas by offering flights to Qantas' stranded passengers to Europe and Asian countries from Australia or vice versa and in return Qantas will pay MAS for utilizing MAS fleets.

MAS has good services, one of the World's Best Cabin Crew and a 5-Stars airlines. MAS-Qantas has a good relationship and recently MAS join One World is sponsored by Qantas but MAS didnt take this opportunity to market them. MAS should be more sensitive next time.