Join me on a delivery flight of Malaysia Airlines A330-900neo from Airbus Factory Toulouse to Kuala Lumpur. I experienced a mid-air 'technical' turn back the next day!
I was invited by the Minister of Transport Malaysia Anthony Loke Siew Fook to be onboard the new Malaysia Airlines A330neo. The brand new aircraft is configured with a two-class layout featuring 28 fully-flat Business Class seats and 269 Economy Class seats, totaling 297 seats. The Business Class is in a 1-2-1 configuration with privacy doors, and Economy features a 2-4-2 layout.
The flight time from Toulouse to Kuala Lumpur was 12 hours and 30 minutes. Watch the takeoff action from the flight deck with a 360 camera. During the flight, the captain explained the new feature on the A330neo over the older A330ceo. I spoke with the Minister of Transport on the current challenges of the aviation sector and how Malaysia Airlines can do better.
The next day, I flew out of Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong on Malaysia Airlines B737-800. A routine 3.5-hour flight turned into a dramatic 10-hour trip with a mid-air turn back to Kuala Lumpur shortly after takeoff. The Captain said the B737 has experienced a technical fault but didn’t elaborate further. It was a rare occasion that I felt uneasy and worried on the flight.
