MAB KARGO SDN. BHD. (MASkargo) recently executed a bold move by flying the Malaysia Airlines’ A380 aircraft to London carrying only cargo. Flight MH04 departed KLIA at 9.50am on Tuesday with 26tonnes of cargo made up of mostly e-commerce goods originating from Guangzhou.
“This is definitely an innovative and “beyond-the-box” approach on our part; as no other Airbus A380 equipped airline that we know, has done this”, said Ibrahim Mohamed Salleh, MASkargo’s Chief Executive Officer.
“Our freighters’ flying hours have been utilised to the maximum allowable due to humanitarian COVID-19 relief efforts and other business demands. When the freighters can no longer cope, we initially innovated via the Passenger-to-Cargo (P2C) project where we use our A330 passenger fleet to carry cargo. With the volume of cargo increasing coupled with lesser cargo capacity into Heathrow, we had no choice but to utilise the biggest aircraft in the Malaysia Airlines fleet to meet our customers’ expectations. The originally scheduled A350, could not cater for the volume of cargo that we need to move”, he continued.
The aircraft did not return empty. Flight MH 001, which departed London Heathrow at 11.35 on Wednesday morning was also fully laden with cargo. The flight arrived in KLIA at 6.30 on Thursday morning with cargo primarily made up of pharmaceutical products and mail.
“I am ecstatic that the A380 P2C rotation is a success. It took a lot of coordination between ourselves in Kuala Lumpur, our Guangzhou office led by Oscar Chien and our London office, headed by Anita Sehgal. Everyone had a major role in filling up the aircraft from each end especially on the return flight with a substantial load in short notice. Our customers are happy that we have managed to pull this off”, said Ooi Cheng Heong, MASkargo’s Regional Senior Manager, who was the project champion.
“This would not have been possible without the teamwork and unwavering cross support for each other within the Malaysian Aviation Group. We have more flights in the pipeline and we could not have managed them on our own. We will keep our aircraft flying to make sure the medical and business needs of the world especially Malaysia, are fulfilled. I believe that our perseverance and innovations during this dark period will bear great results which we can all celebrate together soon. In the meantime, please stay home, stay safe and stay healthy”, Ibrahim ended.
