My Aviation Stories
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Singapore Airshow 2012: Another Awesome Experience!
The Singapore Airshow is back! After attending the 2010’s edition of the Singapore Airshow (click here to read), I’ve become a big fan of this biennial event. It is by far the biggest aviation event in the region with a great mixture of general, civilian, business and military aviation action throughout the week. Despite the usual beginning-of-the-year workload at the office, I’ve ensured that the weekend of 18th Feb 2012 is reserved for the Singapore Airshow. After purchasing the ticket online and collecting it at a local ticketing...
read moreEvening Air Tour over Subang with JFK
Being an aviation fan, I never pass up on an opportunity to fly. When I heard that the ‘hot-shot celebrity pilot’ Johan Farid Khairuddin or better known as JFK was organising night flights to earn his night flying hours, I quickly grab the opportunity to experience for the first time flying on a light plane during sunset. After a couple of tweets and BBM messages, we agreed to fly on Sunday 080112. Weather was not on our side. It was cloudy and raining prior to the flight. While it is perfectly safe to fly in this kind of weather, the...
read moreKuala Lumpur Welcomes the A380
The biggest passenger jet in the world, the Airbus A380 has landed in Kuala Lumpur! An Emirates Airbus A380 took off on January 1st 2012 from Dubai to Kuala Lumpur, marking the first passenger-carrying/revenue superjumbo flight to Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). The Emirates A380 fleet now flies to more than 15 destinations around the world, with the latest addition being KLIA. Starting from today, the Emirates A380 will be a regular visitor with one of the thrice daily flights between Dubai-Kuala Lumpur-Dubai will be served by...
read moreSubang – Melaka – Subang by Air: A Memorable Flight
“Subang to Malacca by flight? You got to be kidding me! ” was the exact reaction of my friends when I told them that I plan to try out this new route from Firefly Airlines. This new route was introduced since 21st November 2011 as part of the collaboration between Firefly and Melaka Air Sdn Bhd, a Malacca state-government entity. In a nutshell, Melaka Air sees the opportunity of Melaka-Medan-Melaka route and since they chose to collaborate with Firefly, the ATR need to travel between Subang to Malacca v.v to serve the Medan route...
read moreFirefly-ing to Kuantan, Pahang
In the past I have wrote a couple of blog posts on my experience flying with Firefly Airlines and these posts have been one of the most frequently read posts on AzuanZahdi.com. Due to request from some of my blog readers, I’ve decided to write an updated review and this time I’ll be trying out the newly reinstated route of Subang-Kuantan. Although the flight was part of a sponsored media/partners familiarization trip, my review will remain strictly based on my personal views. Back in 2009, Firefly was doing well with this route but...
read moreFree Stuff: Thank You Gift from AzuanZahdi.com
Greetings everyone! This is a special announcement for all. For more than 5 years I’ve been writing blog posts and sharing my passion on aviation and travel with all of you guys and I’m now proud to announce that I finally reached my initial target of an average 300 visitors per day. Alhamdulillah I’m thankful that I came to this point and I consider this moment as one of my greatest achievements in my blogging ‘career’. Now, to show my big thanks to all of you guys, I will be having a thank you giveaway at...
read moreNew Kebaya for MAS Stewardess?
I was contemplating whether to write about the recent hot news in local aviation – the MAS and Air Asia collaboration and share swap deal. As much as I want to share my strong personal views on the deal, I have decided that it’s best for me to keep it to myself. Rather than cracking my head analysing and blogging on the ‘monopoly’ deal, I chose to write a more ‘light & easy’ aviation related blog post. As part of my aviation collectibles, I collect inflight magazines from various airlines and Going...
read moreThe Twin Otter Experience: Flying from Kuching to Mukah & Back
“You are flying to Mukah just for the sake of being on the Twin Otter plane?” That was the exact question that was asked to me by a fellow passenger of flight MH3411 from Kuching to Mukah. As much as it sounds like a crazy idea, it is the absolute truth. I flew all the way to Kuching, stayed a night in the city and flew to Mukah and back to Kuching on the same day just for the sake of flying on the Twin Otter! Yes, it’s true. As a self-acclaimed aviation enthusiast, I always have the desire to fly on different kind of planes. For many...
read moreChill Out at Plaza Premium Lounge, JB
For some, airports are stressful places. Despite me being an aviation enthusiast, there are times when I travel that I just need to have some peace and quiet in an airport. Thanks to my full Priority Pass membership, I have access to more than 600 airport lounges in the world. Priority Pass is the world’s largest independent airport lounge access program that has been around for 19 years! Basically a member of Priority Pass pays a single yearly fee and gets unlimited access to the lounges. In Malaysia, Priority Pass members get full access...
read moreCelebrating MAS’ New A330-300
On the 14th of April 2011, Malaysia Airlines unveiled its first of 15 new Airbus A330-300 aircraft, sporting the new MAS livery and enhanced in-flight features. The launching event was held at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport starting with a 30-minutes launch flight followed by an official launching ceremony. A week before the event, Malaysia Airlines Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer YM Tengku Dato’ Sri Azmil Zahruddin had a twitter contest on his personal twitter account where the first 10 followers who responded to his...
read moreFireflying to Kuching, The Cat City
At the end of February 2011, thanks to Firefly Airlines cheap tickets for their KLIA-Kuching route, my wife and I were able to have another round of ‘jalan-jalan’ weekend getaway. If last year we covered JB, Alor Star, Kota Bharu, Penang and Langkawi during weekends this year our targets are mainly cities in Sabah and Sarawak. After the fun time we had on our Sabah trip in January, it’s time to explore Kuching, the cat city! I’ll be blogging in few blog posts which I shall start with the flight to Kuching itself followed by interesting...
read moreFly2Ipoh – The First Impression!
“Fly2Ipoh” is the latest brand in the Malaysian aviation scene. Infinity Travel services Sdn Bhd may not be an airline company but the company behind Fly2Ipoh brand is all set to introduce more flavours to our local aviation industry. Concentrating on reviving niche routes from Ipoh, Fly2Ipoh has started operations since March 11, 2011 serving Subang and Johor Bahru. The concept of Fly2Ipoh is quite new in Malaysia. It is actually a travel agent company (Infinity Travel services) running scheduled charter flights between these three...
read moreKL City Sky Tour with JFK!
“To most people, the sky is the limit. To those who love aviation, the sky is home”. This interesting anonymous quote I found on the net perfectly describes how I feel about aviation. Despite having taken hundreds of flights over the last few years on business and personal travel, I never get the cure to my ‘itchiness’ to fly! For the same reason, when I got to know that the famous JFK, Johan Farid Khairuddin is providing joyride over KL on his little Cessna, I know that I have to try it! For those of you that don’t know who JFK...
read moreFlying from Kota Kinabalu to KL on Firefly Airlines
After a great 3 days 2 nights (wish it was longer!) in Kota Kinabalu, it was time to say good-bye to the land of seafood, island and nature! Thanks to Firefly Airlines RM9 all-inclusive flight tickets I was able to experience the tourism side of Kota Kinabalu with my wife and family at an affordable price. In this final post of my Kota Kinabalu holiday series, I’ll share my experience flying back to KL with Firefly on their 3rd day of operations in Kota Kinabalu. If you’ve missed my other posts on Kota Kinabalu, click on the links...
read moreFY502 – Firefly’s First Flight to Kota Kinabalu (15-1-2011)
My alarm clock went off at 04:00am on 15th January 2011, a couple of hours earlier than my normal wake-up time. While most people would still be in bed enjoying their weekend sleep, I was up and ready for a long and memorable day. To be honest, I was too excited that I kept getting up and looking at my watch so that I did not sleep through the alarm clock. The time has finally come! After months of planning and anticipating, the day has come for another ‘tick’ in my aviation resolution which is to be part of an inaugural flight. 15th...
read moreStaring at Airplanes…literally
Last weekend, I was in Kampung Subang area checking out a few furniture shops looking for furniture for our new house. As I explored the area near Kg Subang, the temptation of seeing low flying aircrafts is a bit too much for me to take. I ended up taking a break from window shopping and drove to a spot next to the airport to do some aircraft staring! This is the same spot that I watched the Thunderbirds Air Show last year. Read about that here. Since I had my camera with me, I decided to snap some photos. Without the right lenses the...
read moreRemembering The 4th Dec 1977 Tanjung Kupang Tragedy
The date 4th December this year marked 33 years since the ghastly Malaysia’s worst air crash which took the life of 100 people. Tragedi Tanjung Kupang was the deadliest and first fatal accident for our national carrier, Malaysia Airlines. Picture from PaulChoong Exchange Airlines Postcard (Note: Same aircraft model but this is not 9M-MBD) According to the wikipedia article, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH653, a Boeing 737-2H6 aircraft registered as 9M-MBD crashed at Tanjung Kupang, Johor, in Malaysia on the evening of 4 December 1977. All 93...
read moreMy New Aviation Collectible: MASkargo B747-400F Model
One branch of my aviation hobby is to collect aviation related collectibles. From inflight magazine to stewardess phone numbers, plane models, I just can’t have enough of aviation stuff in my display cabinet in my room. There was even one time that I collected more than 100 flight tickets over the period of 10 years. Too bad, the tickets went missing when I moved to the new house otherwise it would make a great item during this current e-ticket era. In my recent visit to MASkargo as part of a job assignment, I was given a few more cool...
read moreFirefly Walk-In Interview for Cabin Crew and Ground Operations Officer
I was flipping through The Star job ads section on Saturday when I saw this walk-in interview ad from Firefly. They are hiring more Cabin Crew (Female only!) and Ground Operations Officer (to be based in KLIA and Subang). With the announcement early last week on Firefly’s expansion to KLIA, BKI and KCH as covered in my previous article here, grab the chance to be part of Firefly’s fun and exciting team! For those attending the cabin crew walk-in interview, remember this number 157cm! hehe Also, click here to read about on of the Walk-In...
read moreFirefly Review–Episode 30: Firefly Expands to KLIA, BKI, KCH with New Boeing 737-800!
“Firefly won’t last long”, “it will go burst in 1 year”, “there can only be one low-cost carrier”. These were some of the strong comments made by a few of my fellow aviation friends when Firefly started its operation from Penang back in 2007. Only three short years later, Firefly has proven them wrong and emerged as a successful business model that has achieved many important milestones in the aviation industry. I still remember my first Firefly flight from Subang (the days before SkyPark!) to Johor Bharu on a classic Fokker-50...
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