Malaysia Airlines New Boeing 737-8 Aircraft

Malaysia Airlines New Boeing 737-8 Aircraft

Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), the parent company of national carrier Malaysia Airlines, today commemorated the arrival of its first Boeing 737-8 aircraft with a launch ceremony held at Hangar 5, MAB Engineering Complex.

I was invited to the Malaysia Airlines New Boeing 737-8 Aircraft launch ceremony event. To be honest, it is great to see how Malaysia Airlines doing right now. At the event, I bumped many media friends as well as familiar faces who are working in Malaysia Airlines right now.

The event was graced by Loke Siew Fook, Minister of Transport Malaysia; YM Raja Azmi bin Raja Nazuddin, Chief Operating Officer, Malaysian Aviation Commission; Tan Sri Wan Zulkiflee Wan Ariffin, Group Chairman of MAG, and Datuk Captain Izham Ismail, Group Managing Director of MAG.

The induction of the aircraft type marks the beginning of the gradual expansion plan of MAG’s narrowbody fleet. MAG has an orderbook of 25 737-8 aircraft through its operating lease with Air Lease Corporation (ALC), which will be delivered progressively through to 2026.

The aircraft will embark on its first commercial flight to Kota Kinabalu later today via Malaysia Airlines flight MH2640 departing Kuala Lumpur at 3:40pm local time. The aircraft will service destinations across domestic Malaysia, before expanding to other networks across ASEAN and Asia as more of the aircraft type enters into service.

Now, let’s check out the Malaysia Airlines 737-8 interior. Similar to its refreshed Boeing 737-800 NG aircraft, the 737-8 will offer similar seating configurations comprising 12 seats in Business Class and 162 seats in Economy Class.

The 737-8 will feature state-of-the-art wireless in-flight entertainment, showcasing a wide variety of content that is set to elevate the in-flight entertainment paradigm providing passengers with ample choices.

For the business class, the color of the seat is one color only, it is blue. The middle part of the seat comes with the pattern texture. The seat itself is using synthetic leather.

The business class seat is very comfortable and it fits nicely when I sat in. I love the handrest as well. The design and color of the business class is very simple and clean.

All the business class seat do not comes with the LCD Panel as they are using their wireless in-flight entertainment.

They also showcase their new Business class in flight food menu mock up. I hope to check out their Business class menu one day.

Next, it is the Malaysia Airlines 737-8 economy class seats. The chair comes with three tones of color, primarily grey, blue and light blue. The seats are using synthetic leather like the business class.

The seating is pretty standard and the chair is still stiff as these are brand new. The leg room are pretty standard for economy class. The chair comes with two types of charging ports which is handy when you use the wireless inflight entertainment.

For the economy class inflight food menu, they offer nasi lemak as well as nasi goreng chicken satay. My soft excitement will be the chicken satay as it used to be exclusive for Business class passengers only.

 In the pipeline, as part of its broader connectivity strategy, Malaysia Airlines will introduce high-quality internet connectivity, which will mark the first time MAG incorporates this feature into its narrowbody fleet; allowing customers to stay connected throughout their journey.

At today’s event, AeroDarat, the ground handling arm of MAG, showcased its latest ground operation technology adoption by operating the electrical towing of the 737-8 utilising the Mototok Spacer 8600NG. The first of 12 towbarless tug units arrived in October 2023, allowing ADS to operate electrical pushback on customers’ narrowbody fleet. This makes MAG the first organisation in Asia and second in the world to operate this particular electrical pushback model, signifying its commitment to reduce its emissions from the ground up.

As part of its fleet modernisation plans, MAG is currently undergoing a refurbishment on 39 of its 47 B737-800 NG aircraft, which is targeted to be completed in early 2024. In addition, the Group recently acquired one A350-900 aircraft to support its growth requirements,  and will be receiving 20 Airbus 330neo aircraft, with the first delivery scheduled in September 2024. MAG currently owns a fleet size of 102 through its subsidiaries Malaysia Airlines, Firefly, MASwings and MASkargo.

Overall, I enjoyed the Malaysia Airlines New Boeing 737-8 Aircraft launch ceremony event. It is good to see Malaysia Airlines back into business with new airplanes as well as new offerings in the future. I hope to fly with Malaysia Airlines soon to share my travel experiences.

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