Malindo Air Review: Affordable Comfort on a Boeing 737-800 from Penang to Kuala Lumpur
You can read all about the background for this trip and my ATR 72 flight from Subang to Penang here.
Disclaimer
I took this flight in June 2017 and have re-uploaded this due to moving blogs. Malindo Air has since rebranded to Batik Air Malaysia, although the carrier does still operate between Penang and Kuala Lumpur.
After an enjoyable week in Malaysia, it was time to commence the long overnight trek to Korea. This would first take me to Kuala Lumpur where I would have a few hours before rocketing off on a Vietnam Airlines Airbus A321 to Ho Chi Minh City. Once there, I would have a short layover before heading back to Korea on an overnight Airbus A350-operated service. Penang International Airport sits around sixteen kilometres to the south of the island’s capital, George Town, and is connected to this via a network of public buses. However, seeing as I would be travelling with a suitcase and with a long journey ahead of me, I opted to order a Grab taxi rather than spend longer than necessary in the hot and humid Malaysian summer air. With my flight scheduled to depart Penang at 1455, I opted to play things safe and after checking out of my hotel and heading to a nearby café for an iced coffee, three hours before departure I opened up Grab and ordered a car to the airport. This rocked up several minutes later, and, once again, came in the form of a locally produced Proton.
Speeding through the streets of George Town, the car made its way through the Old Town before heading southwards through the city’s southern suburbs and joining the highway. With very little traffic that Wednesday afternoon, the journey to the airport took almost no time and we soon whizzed up the short ramp to the first floor departures level of the terminal which allowed for good views of the same Malindo Air ATR 72 that I had flown up to Penang several days earlier, alongside a vintage Boeing 737-300 Freighter operated by the small Malaysian cargo carrier Neptune Air.
Once I had paid the driver and collected my suitcase from the boot, I made several steps through the humid summer heat and entered the terminal where I was immediately hit by the greasy scent of two fast food outlets – McDonalds and KFC. On that note, given the airport terminal’s reasonably modest size, there seemed to be a good number of cafés, eateries and shops dotted about the landside area, whilst this part of the terminal was modern and clean, thereby leaving me with absolutely no complaints. With plenty of time to go until departure and being unable to drop off my suitcase until 1255, I made my way to the local branch of Pinang Kopitiam for my final Penang style coffee. Setting me back 5.90 ringgit, whilst this was a little more expensive than most other coffees that I had enjoyed in Penang, costing only a little over £1 I could hardly complain, furthermore, the café offered fast wifi which seemed to work noticeably better than that provided throughout the terminal.
At 1300, I left the kopitiam and strolled over to Malindo Air’s four check-in counters. Having checked in online, I headed to the web check-in counter where, thanks to a couple of passengers with plenty of excess luggage, a five-minute wait was in store. Upon reaching the front of the queue, a friendly Malindo Air staff member printed off a paper copy of my boarding pass and tagged my bag within about thirty seconds, after which I was free to head through security. Given the general busyness of the landside area of the terminal, I had expected to be greeted by reasonable queues at security. Fortunately, this was surprisingly empty and within a couple of minutes, I found myself in the largely empty domestic airside portion of the terminal.
Whilst I would not say that the airside area of the terminal had an endless list of facilities, this was perfectly acceptable for any moderate wait of up to a couple of hours. Importantly for enthusiasts, large windows allowed for reasonable views of the action on the runway and at the terminal’s gates. At that time, movements consisted of an AirAsia Airbus A320 pushing back for its flight to Kuala Lumpur as well as a Firefly ATR 72 heading in the same direction albeit to Subang. Meanwhile, over at the freight terminal on the other side of the airfield, a trio of widebodies could be seen. These took the form of an Air Hong Kong Airbus A300 alongside a couple of American Boeing 767s operated by FedEx and UPS.
With an hour to go until boarding, I headed over to Dunkin Donuts for a light if not unhealthy lunch, before walking through the empty terminal for one last time before my flight. At 1410, rather surprisingly seeing as the aircraft taking me down to Kuala Lumpur was based there, the five Malindo Air cabin crew members and two pilots that would operate the flight down to the Malaysian capital gathered at Gate B3 and, after posing for a group photo, waited for the arrival of the inbound service. Five minutes later the jet pulled up to the terminal and within a couple of minutes, passengers began to stream off the aircraft. The aircraft operating the afternoon service down to Kuala Lumpur that day would be Boeing 737-8GP, 9M-LCP, which sported the hybrid Malindo Air-Batik Air livery. Having made its first flight in early February 2017, at the time of my flight, this particular aircraft was just under four months old. In the week leading up to this short domestic hop, the aircraft had undertaken 39 flights, covering at least 17,300 miles, connecting Kuala Lumpur with Bangkok Don Mueang, Kota Bharu, Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, Langkawi, Penang and Singapore.
According to my boarding pass, boarding would commence at 1425. However, in reality, it wasn’t until 1435 that the gate agent performed an announcement inviting all passengers to board in Malay and English, with this not being undertaken in any particular order. With passengers appearing to be in no hurry to board, I soon joined the short queue and had my boarding pass scanned before making my way down the hot and humid greenhouse like jetbridge. Following a short pause at the cabin door, I stepped into the forward galley where, leaving me with a good first impression of the crew, I received a warm and friendly greeting from two flight attendants.
Once onboard, I turned right and found myself standing in the three-row Business class cabin. This consisted of twelve comfortable recliner seats in a 2-2 configuration, each covered in a beige pleather cover, topped with a large adjustable headrest and coming with a small square pillow. In Economy, each of the 150 seats was a little more spartan, being rather thin and lacking any particular bells and whistles. Each of these was covered in a smart dark pleather cover with red sides and stitching and featured a tray table, a seatback pocket, and a space where inflight entertainment screens could have perhaps been installed. Unlike some of Malindo Air’s other Boeing 737-800s, including the one that I had flown from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok Don Mueang the previous year, this jet lacked any personal inflight entertainment screens and USB-A ports. Whilst the absence of these may be an annoyance for those passengers on the airline’s longer flights to say Australia or Japan, I could not complain about this given the very short flight duration that afternoon.
Aside from this, I found the seat to be a little firm although considering Malindo Air’s status as a low cost carrier, I was pleased to find that these seats offered a reasonable amount of legroom. Meanwhile, as one would expect given the aircraft’s age, I was unable to spot any signs of wear and tear around my seat, and in addition, the aircraft appeared to be impressively clean despite its short turnaround in Penang. Turning to the seatback pocket, this contained a safety card, sick bag, a copy of the MalindoMag and the onboard shopping catalogue.
A mere ten minutes after boarding commenced, all passengers had made their way onto the aircraft, with this appearing to be no more than around 30% full. At 1450, the jazz music that had rang out through the cabin was temporarily paused as the crew made an announcement requesting all ground crew to leave the aircraft, hinting at a punctual departure. This was then followed by a welcome announcement from the Purser in both Malay and English, after which the safety demonstration commenced. With one minute to go until our scheduled departure time, the aircraft jolted backwards as the two CFMI CFM56-7B26E engines spooled into life with a series of familiar hums and whines. A few minutes later, the flaps were partially extended and the Boeing commenced its short taxi to the end of Runway 02.
At 1502, the aircraft taxied straight onto the runway and following a very brief pause, the two engines spooled up as we went flying down this, soon rocketing upwards into the skies and bumping around a little as we flew parallel to the island’s eastern coastline. Around a minute or so after taking to the skies, the aircraft turned over the Penang Straight, bringing the 13.5 kilometre long Penang Bridge into view before reaching the mainland where a host of impressive cloud formations could be seen outside.
As the aircraft climbed, the initial turbulence subsided and at 1508 the seatbelt signs were switched off at which point the crew immediately sprang into action. That afternoon, the complimentary inflight service took the form of small plastic cups of incredibly sweet and sugary orange juice, and unlike on my ATR 72 ride up from Subang, no buy-on-board service was undertaken. Soon, the aircraft levelled off at its cruising altitude and trundled southwards over the western edge of Peninsula Malaysia, during this, the odd gap in the clouds revealed the occasional town and industrial estate interspersed by dense jungle, with good views offered of the cities of Kuala Kangsar and Ipoh.
With no neighbours, I decided to pay a visit to one of the two lavatories at the rear of the cabin. Despite having seen heavy usage during the short flight, once inside I found this to be clean and stocked with all the basics that you would hope to find, such as soap, toilet roll and paper towels. Before returning to my seat, I noticed that the jet was a true Lion Group aircraft, with containers from Batik Air, Lion Air and Malindo Air all on display in the rear galley.
Before I knew it, at 1520 the aircraft could be felt commencing its descent at which point the First Officer undertook a brief announcement in English only thanking passengers for flying with Malindo Air, noting our arrival time and the weather on the ground in Kuala Lumpur. By this time, the clouds had closed in on us and we were bumping around a little, although these soon cleared up and revealed views of jungles and hills to the north of the Malaysian capital. At 1530 downtown Kuala Lumpur could just be seen between the clouds, with the KL Tower clearly visible as we flew southwards towards the city’s main airport. At this time, an American voice came on the speakers with a robotic pre-recorded ‘Direct access message number 1 – this is a fasten seatbelt announcement’, at which point the Purser asked all passengers to ensure their seatbelts were fastened in both Malay and English.
As the aircraft sank lower over urban and industrial areas, the flaps were gradually extended and we found ourselves flying parallel with the coastline on approach to Kuala Lumpur. This approach took us over farms, towns and refineries. Eventually, full flaps were extended and the crew were called to their seats as we flew over the green waters of the Sungai Sepang which serves as the border between the states of Selangor and Negeri Sembilan. After floating down over dense forests, these cleared and at 1547, the Boeing 737 made what seemed like a heavy touchdown on Runway 32L which was followed by some harsh braking.
Once the aircraft left the runway, the crew performed their welcome announcement whilst the Boeing commenced its taxi to Gate A9. This journey did not take too long and at 1553, the aircraft pulled into the gate, slotting in between a pair of Malaysian Airlines Boeing 737-800s. As soon as the aircraft came to a halt, a frenzy of activity occurred inside the aircraft with many passengers further forward standing up and crowding the aisle. Fortunately for them, disembarkation commenced at 1556 and soon enough, I found myself thanking the crew and heading up the jetway and into the terminal thereby ending my pleasant experience with Malindo Air.
Summary
Just like my ATR 72 ride up to Penang, my flight with Malindo Air left me with no complaints. The aircraft was clean, comfortable and in good condition, I made it to Kuala Lumpur on time and in one piece, and the crew were polite and friendly. Thus, with all things considered, I would be more than happy to fly with Malindo Air again at some point in the future.
