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Aside their prices being a tad higher (not anymore I hope with their Everyday Low Fares promotion ongoing year-long), one thing that will hamper me from flying the wau is their age-old aircrafts. Some of their Boeing 737-400s are even older than me (20 years). While MAS has embarked on a cabin refurbishment program recently to transform the tired interiors into Smarties tubes, the fact still remains the same - old, tired jets.

Finally, this will soon become something of the past.

Malaysia Airlines formalized a purchase of 35 aircrafts from American planemaker Boeing yesterday in the Farnborough Airshow. These Next-Generation Boeing 737-800s (pictured) will start arriving in MAS' fleet as early as 2010.

MAS' order pushed the total orders for the Boeing 737 past the 8000 mark since its inception 40 years ago. Being the world's most popular and most profitable aircraft, the 737s had been in the industry since the Jumbo Jet era. Still showing signs of strong demand due to increasing fuel prices and short-haul traveling, the 737 program is the most successful aircraft ever manufactured to date.

With their new babies, several other aircrafts of the fleet will bid goodbye to us very soon, namely the mainly-domestic 737-400 and the A330 operating mainly within ASEAN/Asia Pacific. The 737-800 have the ability to cover up till 5 hours of flight, which makes it operable to destinations in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India.

On another note, aviation nuts like me will get to enjoy detailed insights into operating an airline from engineering, catering, passenger feedback and inflight services with the launch of Malaysia Airlines' new blog. Living Malaysian Hospitality - eating, breathing, sleeping MH features posts from employees of MAS as well as events in the company - something very innovative I think. Aside from sneak peaks and coorporate events, if you feel like ranting the From Our Guest will enable you to write to your heart's content. However, it is not real-life update (to prevent the red guy from bashing them).

Looks like the wau is set to soar!