MAS’ parent company Khazanah Nasional Bhd said the airline had taken steps to suspend loss-making routes and further rationalisation was being considered.
As such, Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will cancel 3 more routes as it rationalises its network. Last week, the airlines suspended flights to Frankfurt and in the coming weeks, it will also stop flying to Kunming (China), Krabi (Thailand), and Cochin (India) as they are seen as unprofitable routes.
MAS’ Krabi route is fairly new, having just launched last year. Its first flight to Krabi departed from the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) in February 2014. The 4 times weekly flights to Krabi operated via MH770 on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, with its flight frequency increased about a month later.
MAS Bhd, which will be a full-fledged international carrier and not a regional airline as planned earlier, will take over MAS operations from 1st Sept.
Khazanah said the new airline’s network would serve Asean, China, India, and domestic markets, with services to key international destinations in Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Saudi Arabia.
The network would also have an expanded reach into Africa, the US and Europe via potential partnerships that were being explored.
In other news, just a few days ago, BBC quoted MAS’ new chief executive Christoph Mueller as saying:
We are technically bankrupt. The decline of performance started long before the tragic events of 2014.
On Monday (1st June), MAS terminated the services of its entire 20,000 staff, who will leave in stages over the next few months. Sources said the first batch of nearly 1,000 staff left yesterday and 4,000 others were expected to leave by the end of August.
In March last year, flight MH370 disappeared with 239 passengers and crew aboard, and the plane is still missing. 4 months later, flight MH17 was shot down by a suspected ground-to-air missile while in Ukrainian airspace, with the loss of 298 passengers and crew.
The 2 disasters proved to be the final straw for the already struggling business, which had reported losses for several years as a result of strong regional competition.
Source: BBC, The Star Online, MMO.
