MALAYSIA AIRLINES - FLYING BACK TO THE 70s.

As our aircraft was taxiing out at Kota Kinabalu International, I saw a Malaysia Airlines B737-800 in the "Kelantan kite" livery. This reminded me of the old Malaysia Airlines System back in the 70s.

Later I found out that this B737-800 was painted to celebrate MAS’s 40th anniversary. 

 

Landed at KLIA, there was an other plane, a B747-400 in the same Malaysia Airlines System livery. 

This  B747-400 was re-commissioned after pulling out from retirement. Malaysia Airlines started their operations in 1972 with a fleet of B737-200 after slitting partnership with Singapore. Later came the B707s followed by DC10s, B747s, A330s, B777s and the latest, A380s. Following the unfortunate tragedies of MH370 and MH17, Malaysia Airlines has been forced to restructure and downsize and as part of that, the entire B777 fleet was grounded. According to a statement issued by the "new" Malaysia Airlines, they were putting this B747-400 back to service as a back up aircraft for their A380s routes.       

I wonder why do they need this old B747 as it is no longer a fuel efficient plane. Besides, they need crews specifically trained to operate the plane, having pilots exclusively for a backup plane seems rather expensive. 

Since Malaysia Airlines has 6 A380s mainly operating the 2 x daily London route, they should have enough A380s to go around even if any one of them is up for heavy maintenance. Is the old B747-400 really required? Perhaps, they should make full use of it for regional and domestic route to boost the image of their glory days.