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Check out this website also:

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByCarrier.do?airline=%28MH%29+Malaysia+Airline

AA has been conning us for a long time. They used to measure ontime based on 1 hour window. Now they are going to 15mins and the numbers don't jive even on their website. and yeah my flight was delayed for 6 hours from Bangkok in July and handled by rude staff. Tell them to stop blaming others and look at AA weakness. Everyone can tell the truth...AA can..???

Firstly, i'd like to congratulate abang jeff on his great counterspin. He always manages to make the people at NST look like a bunch of motherless wh*res who lie through their teeth.

Maybe the stats for AirAsia provided was for a specific time period only? Maybe it was for last year?

And as for MAS you yourself can testify that no stats were available, and please let not consider the ones on flightstats.com as anything near the gospel, as you yourself said, their stats for AirAsia was for one route only, maybe the stats for MAS is also incomplete?

All i wanna say is.. dear Jeff, chill la. Instead of passing judgement so readily

JEFF OOI says" Did I pass judgment easily? Re my blog entry again, where are the judgmental portions? I listened to my readers, investigated the information they have linked me to, and I find different perspectives to the versions raised by the airlines head honchos. Perhaps the Minister, who faulted the airlines for delays, may have a different set of readings. So here I find, my friend, your mind and your mindset REALLY need a parachute. For parachute only works when it's open.

why not you shoot NST/AA/MAS an email and find out the real stat situation for yourself? I'm sure with all your little birds, you can do that.

JEFF OOI says: The onus lies with those who live by corporate governance. Not us Joe Public.

p/s: do try also to tone down on the bunga bunga language you try to use sometimes. Your grammar and spelling tends to get messy once in a while and with all the bunga bunga stuff, i really can't catch what you want to convey.

JEFF OOI says: Why don;t you go for tuition if you find yourself so inadequate? ;-)

Gentlemen... do we have a serious credibility problem here?

I do agree with you that there is certainly a certain degree of distortion with regards to NST's reporting of the facts. However, i find that your reporting of it is makes you equally guilty of spinning the facts.

Where you say?

Well, lets look at the way the data provided by FlightStats.com was presented in your post.

JEFF OOI says: The stats are staring at you. ONE, The sampling size is acceptable by norm. TWO, the monitored sectors covered the top 20 active routes over a 2-month contemporary period -- and KL-Heathrow route ranks top in MAS' case if you dig further into the data which I didn't expose. Shortcoming in AirAsia's has been prominently notified by me without fear or favour.

You made it seem like these stats are completely accurate especially in terms you using it as a benchmark against NST's evaluation. What yo said was,
"which gives it 76% -- a jarring variance of 11% compared to 87% awarded by The NST"
and no qualification was given with regards to the accuracy of the data presented.

JEFF OOI says: My job is to raise doubt if readers raise doubts, and present what me and my readers have discovered, and to hear of perspectives from all sides in order to help the country move froward from the quagmire that ired the Minister of Transport. Visit Malaysia Year 2007 is round the corner and we can't boo-boo again this time. We need revenue for the country to finance 9MP and to power the domestic economy.

But you, whichever way you spin, thebetter option is for you to ( 1 ) totally debunk data collated by FlightStats.com vis-a-vis MAS for the period under monitoring ( 2 ) come up with the definitive stats of yours to supercede that of FlightStats. You did none of those, except to yank, rant and whine.

My question to you then would be, how valid are those stats for you to use them as a basis to criticise NSTs reporting with no other facts available to you?

JEFF OOI says: We are waiting for all this from smart alect like you.

My second beef would be the same as the previous issue, but i believe when it came to the AirAsia stats, you shouldn't have published it at all.

JEFF OOI says: On the contrary, I will not make selective judgment. I will publish FlightStats figures the way the compiler has published it verbatim and the way it was presented for public consumption. I won't play prosecutor and judge except to give it a clear CONTEXT. If you have a better benchmark and data, show us!

Those stats as you mentioned were only for 1 route and are not representative of AirAsia performance in any way whatsoever.

JEFF OOI says: It is a fact on the part of FlightStats.com. I won't colour or distort. I will only report the way it is was published.

Granted you attached a note of qualification on this which read,
"However, it warrants a mention that the sampling size for AirAsia flights was not on an apple-to-apple comparison versus Malaysia Airlines'. Besides, the monitored sector was limited to KUL-Macao route instead of the 20 most active routes for this carrier based on the number of observations made in this time period. Hence, the margin of errors will certainly be higher in this case."
but even this seemed to downplay the the fact that these stats should not be taken at face value.

JEFF OOI says: If my highlighting the salient point wasn't fair play, what is? But the fact lies, to up-play or to down-play is entirely your option, really. And in this case, it's YOU who chose to spin recklessly without giving due diligence to the sanctity of published facts. If you have problems with FlightStats data, raise a protest with them and tell us the result. If you have a more definitive set of data to debunk FlightStats, show us.

Instead of saying that the facts are not representative, you chose only to mention that the margin of error will certainly be higher, thus lending some credibility to these stats when in fact the margin of error could be so high, it could be meaningless.

So you tell me, does your post fall under the category of "clear and transparent reporting" or "spin-doctoring"?

JEFF OOI says: The same questions stare at you.

Last but not least, i'd like to just comment on your personal attack on me with regards to you alluding that i am close-minded and insecure.

JEFF OOI says: Personal attack? Thank you for the over-play to to give a self-evaluation of yourself. But I have no comment. It's your choice.

Is this the way you receive honest criticism from your readers? Instead of choosing to deal with the points that i had raised, your response was just to criticize me on a personal level? I'll just let it slip this time though maybe you were just cranky considering you posted the response in the middle of the night. For your next response however, lets just deal with the issues and leave aside personal attacks aight?

JEFF OOI says: The acid test lies with real life experience. Why not you go take 10 AirAsia flights and 10 MAS flights, do your own caliberation of punctuality in departure. I will help you publish your figures -- provided your daya is reasonably substantiated with witnesses, or better still, backed-up official records -- this is what I was told FlightStats.com practised. Pack yoru luggage now?

[DELETED - Off Tangent not "Off Topic" ]

Somehow I find it rather hard to believe that except for a flight or two all of my airasia flights were lambat gile.

I have taken the Kul-Macao route a few times and almost all the flights are delayed with one delayed by 3 hours. And most of the time the reason for the delay is incoming flight I have taken Tiger air and jetasia whioh are budget airlines as well but they way they upkeep their cleanliness is amazing compared to Airasia. And Airasia service is now atrocious. Stewards are rude and Stewardess sometimes just stood in the aisle without helping those with heavy bags. Airasia has grown too fast that it has become incontrollable. I still remember the earlier flights when Airasia just started the Macao route, They even gave me an apology letter for flight delay.

we've always heard that statistics r lies. but they can also serve to conceal more unpleasant truth by making u stop asking deeper questions.

only 88% 'late' for airasia? but the question doesnt end there - HOW LATE??

late by 5 to 10 minutes is bearable, but i've personally experienced a few, consistent delays of 30min to 1hour for airasia, which is outrageous. mas is late also, but not that bad when u compare the LENGTH of delays between the 2 airlines.

i'm a frequent flyer, n i personally feel that for mas, delay is the exception to the rule, whereas for airasia, it's the rule rather than the exception. besides, mas usually give lunch/tea vouchers as compensation for passengers when their flights r seriously delayed. airasia? NEVER, in my experience.

ALL AIRLINES HAVE DELAYS BUT SOME DELAYS ARE MUCH LONGER THAN OTHERS!!

On the subject of airlines, the situation in Bario is bad. Real bad. A big bottle of mineral water costs RM 5.50, and tourists are advised to pack their own rations!

My past 3 months experience.
1. MAS to Phnom Penh and Air Asia back from Phnom Penh 3x
2. Air Asia to Penang and MAS back from Penang once.
3. Return flight to Bangkok on Air Asia
4. Return flights to Singapore on MAS.

Result:
Air Asia on time 4/6.
1. Once departed 15 mins late but arrived on time. I understand 15 mins delay is still considered on-time.
2. Once departed late 1 hr, attributed to KLIA runway delays

MAS on time: 3/6.
1. Once, cancelled my 9.15am direct flight to Phnom Penh, routing me through Siem Reap on the 11.30am flight with NO prior notice and only a breakfast voucher and not much of an apology.
2. Penang to KL, late by 1 hour.
3. KL to Singapore, late by 30 mins.

I guess I've been lucky, as I've heard of friends who have had long long delays.

Flight Stats info for MAS is has some inaccuracies.

It shows only 7 flights between KL and Singapore for the 1 month period between 15 July and 15 Aug, all of which were cancelled. I think MAS does 7 flights in a DAY, or at most 2 days, and all 7 flights cancelled? Cannot be.

In the same period, SQ had 309 flights from KL to SG and 295 from SG to KL.

Interesting point to note may be the fact that SQ has a 84% on-time rating from SG to KL but only a 53% on-time for KL to SG. Sidetracking, but this makes me think that KLIA may be part of the problem.

http://www.flightstats.com/go/FlightRating/flightRatingByCarrier.do?airline=sq

Doing alright? In another twist the Kiwis think other wise... this is on the front page of the Weekend Dominion:

Malaysian Airlines revealed as facing prosecution

26 August 2006
By MICHAEL FIELD

Malaysian Airlines is the carrier facing prosecution by the Labour Department for allegedly systematically allowing illegal passengers into New Zealand.

The airline was identified a day after the department's border security chief, Api Fiso, refused to name it.

A source said Malaysian Airlines "had a massive history" of flying asylum seekers to New Zealand over an eight-year period. They included Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui in 2002.

It is understood more than half of those reaching New Zealand to claim asylum fly on Malaysian.

Malaysian Airlines spokesman Anbarasu Sundram in Kuala Lumpur said the airline knew of the department's announcement. "We will then see if it is sub judice and whether we can make comment. It's a legal matter, we will have to see what it is all about."

Mr Fiso had said the prosecution would be the first taken under a 2004 amendment to the Immigration Act. The amendment related to a carrier's responsibilities when boarding passengers in another country. The case was set for a hearing in Manukau District Court. The maximum penalty under the act for airlines found guilty is a fine of up to $20,000.

Under the three-year-old Advanced Passenger Processing system, airlines are required to cooperate with the screening of passengers before they board a flight. They are advised, at check-in, whether or not to allow a person to board. Those that fail to comply with a decision made by the department can be prosecuted.

why bang MAS and Air Asia only...what about MAB and the airport services.

I was on flight from KK and flight left on time...but at KLIA we had top circle...reason??..jam at KLIA. So it is still a delay.

In some instance while everybody is at the departure lounge and the plane is in bay...we are not allowed to board..reason..cleaning crew still cleaning the plane. Why can't they do it faster or earlier. Get more people to do the cleaning.
Result of this, imagine 200 passenger trying to board the plane in 15 minutes will surely cause a delay. So it is not only MAS...Airport services also contribute to delays.

Statistics is always a tricky business. You're quite right to ask where the raw data came from for the analysis, but until then, it should not be surprising that data taken from different sources yields different results.

JEFF OOI says: And I am still asking for readers' help. If you have better data/stats sources on the subject matter, please feel free to share here.