It seems like some of the ex-Malaysia Airlines (MAS) personnel who lost their jobs won’t remain unemployed for long.
Malindo Air is offering 600 openings to ex-MAS employees who were axed in a bid to revamp the national airline. Malindo’s CEO, Chandran Rama Muthy, said that the low-cost airline preferred to hire former MAS employees as they are already equipped with the essential knowledge and skills, thus dismissing the need for basic training.
During the launch of Malindo Air’s new in-flight Wi-Fi service and magazine, Muthy said:
We are not only offering jobs for cabin crews but also looking for pilots and other candidates who are skilled in flight and ground operations.
However, Malindo will also be offering positions in their call centre and non-technical fields like marketing. He further elaborated, “We have received quite a number of job applications from former MAS employees and may take in more as we have the budget until the end of this year to fill 600 positions.”
Last Monday (1st June), termination letters were sent out to 20,000 existing staffs of MAS. Out of the 20,000, 14,000 employees were offered jobs in the newly founded Malaysia Airlines Bhd group (MAS Bhd) by 1st September 2015. Unfortunately, the remaining 6,000 were regretfully dismissed.
After discontinuing flights to Frankfurt (Germany), Kunming (China), Cochin (India), and Krabi (Thailand), MAS also plans to sell off 2 of their Airbus A380 jets.
All these are part of MAS’ efforts to restructure the company with their new CEO, Christoph R. Mueller, after being hit with the tragedies of the crashed MH17 flight and the still-missing MH370 flight.
However, Mueller stated that MAS is “technically bankrupt” and “the decline of performance started long before the tragic events of 2014”. The new executive officer will be taking steps to ensure that the airline will remain competitive and recoup it losses by 2018. Mueller was also credited with the financial recovery of Irish airline Aer Lingus.
Sources: The Rakyat Post, The Star Online, BBC News
