Eaglexpress Air Charter seeks to restart ops

Eaglexpress Air Charter (9A, Kuala Lumpur Int'l) is planning to restart operations later this year, the airline's president Azlan Zailan Abidin has said.

The ACMI/charter operator terminated operations in December 2016 after the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) revoked its Air Services Permit (ASP) citing the airline's poor financial standing at the time.
However, according to the Bernama news agency, Abidin told a press conference in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, this week that Eaglexpress Air Charter had secured USD100 million in funding and would submit an application for a new ASP next month, the first step in its recertification process.
Operationally, Abidin said Eaglexpress Air Charter would lease up to five second-hand aircraft - among them B777s, B747s, and A330s - from a third party. These would then be used to deployed on Hajj and Umrah charter flights, as well as cargo services.

"We will probably make the inaugural flight towards the end of the year, and hope to provide the Umrah and Hajj services too," he said. "In fact, we have been talking with Indonesian carrier Garuda Indonesia (GA, Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta), and Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG, Dhaka). Opportunity is abundant in this area."

The carrier will also consider entering the scheduled passenger services niche plying routes that Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur Int'l) has long since abandoned including Johannesburg O.R. Tambo/Cape Town in South Africa, Buenos Aires Ezeiza in Argentina, and Manchester Int'l in the United Kingdom.

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Malaysian unions angry over Eaglexpress AOC renewal

The National Union of Flight Attendants Malaysia (NUFAM) has taken the country's Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) to task for its decision to renew the AOC of Eaglexpress Air Charter (9A, Kuala Lumpur Int'l) despite the carrier owing employees months of unpaid back wages.

NUFAM questioned why the DCA had decided to allow the charter specialist to continue operations when it used the exact same conditions to revoke Rayani Air's AOC earlier this year.

"What is the real motive behind [the] DCA's move to issue the license in a hurry, despite knowing that the firm is facing financial problems?" Union secretary-general, Mohd Azam, said via the Malaysiakini outlet.

Employees have reportedly not been paid for the last three months and, despite assurances from Eaglexpress management that it would settle their claims by the end of August, nothing has happened.

A DCA spokesman has defended the action claiming their scrutinization focused only on the airline's technical abilities as opposed to its financial status. The latter is the sole responsibility of the Malaysian Aviation Commission (MAVCOM) he added.

For its part, MAVCOM has said it would only renew Eaglexpress's Air Services Permit (ASP) for a further twelve months from September 1 subject to it complying with specific conditions by November 30, 2016.

Eaglexpress operates four B747-400s (three of which are in service for Saudi (SV, Jeddah) and one in service with flynas (XY, Riyadh)) and one B747-400(M) (stored in Kuala Lumpur Int'

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Biman Bangladesh settles on Eaglexpress for Hajj charters

Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG, Dhaka) management has settled on wet-leasing a B747-400 from Malaysian ACMI/charter firm Eaglexpress Air Charter (9A, Kuala Lumpur Int'l) for its Hajj charter needs. The two sides will now enter into negotiations which, if successful, could lead to the signing of a firm contract later this month.

The announcement follows a recent inspection of three potential operators in Malaysia one of which included Malaysia Airlines (MH, Kuala Lumpur Int'l).

The first pre-hajj flight is scheduled for August 4.
For its part Eaglexpress Air Charter operates three B747-400s (all in service with Saudia (SV, Jeddah)), one A330-200 (in service with flynas (XY, Riyadh)), and one B747-400(M) (currently stored at Kuala Lumpur Int'l).

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Eaglexpress Air - B747-400

Eaglexpress