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MALAYSIA AIRLINES IS set to fire 6,000 staff in a major restructuring of the company, as it struggles to recover from the loss of two jetliners in March and July.
The wholesale redundancies amount to almost one third of the stricken airline’s 20,000-strong workforce, and is more severe than had been expected by industry experts.
Furthermore, a new company is set to be established, that will take over the existing Malaysia Airlines business and its reduced staff.
Khazanah Nasional, the state investment company that owns 69% of Malaysia Airlines, announced the drastic measures today.
The radical overhaul will cost about 6 billion ringgit (€1.4 billion), and the Malaysian government will also buy out the remaining 31% – making the air carrier 100% state-owned.
At a press conference today, Khazanah also announced it had begun looking for a new CEO, to replace Ahmad Jauhari Yahya by the end of this year.
“The combination of measures announced today will enable our national airline to be revived,” said Khazanah managing director Azman Mokhtar.
The new incarnation of Malaysia Airlines is set to be established by July 2015.
The national airline had already been undergoing severe losses for several years before the disappearance of Flight 370 and its 239 passengers and staff in March.
That was followed by the deaths of 298 people when MH17 was shot down by pro-Russian separatists over eastern Ukraine in July.
Second-quarter financial reports released yesterday showed that Malaysia Airlines’ net loss between April and June this year had widened to 307 million ringgit (€74 million), up from 176 million ringgit (€42 million) for the same period in 2013.
Significantly, those figures do not take into account further inevitable losses accruing after the shooting down of Flight MH17, which occurred on 17 July.
The tragedies have scarred the airline’s brand, once associated with high-quality service.
Travelers on recent long-haul flights have posted photos on social media of nearly empty cabins and departure lounges.
The airline says passengers fell 11 percent in July from the year before.
Contains reporting from the Associated Press.
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A great airline destroyed in a short time period.
Read the article, it said losses over several years !
He’s talking about from March till now the airline has been destroyed. Did you even read the article yourself?
Several years is still quite a short amount of time in aviation terms.
Very sad – fantastic airline!
I agree … have flown with them several times… a fantastic airline and will fly with them again…
Those photos have since been proven to be a joke, in that they were taken by people who got on first when in fact the flight was up to 60% – 70% full!
Bit more research Dan
If that where true how come there are no cabin crew in the photos, and why would they allow three people seated at the rear, middle and front of the aircraft to board together ahead of everyone else ?
Priority boarding is available to elderly people, people with small kids, people with crutches etc…
You didn’t look at the photo your commenting on…Doh !
6,000 holy crap!
That’s a pity flew with them from London to kuala lumper.one of the best I’ve flown with
Not really…they’re just using the Windscale-Sellafield strategy to change their name.
When I said this would happen about a months ago I was completely ridiculed by people on this site…. Where are they now
Malaysian Airlines has been bailed-out numerous times over the years with funds diverted from PETRONAS, the state-owned Malaysian oil and gas company. Sometimes this was public, more often done privately. Malaysian Airlines is a typical example of an overstaffed jobs-for-the-boys state company, it failed as it could not compete with the efficiently run Ryanairs of this world. In Malaysia the government’s racist policy of giving all senior management posts to politically well-connected Malays rather than the best candidate who may have been Chinese, Indian or European did not help. That said, the Malaysian Airlines airhostesses were some of the nicest people you would ever meet, I trust they will continue to look after us so well in the new formula Malaysian Airlines
Comparing a full service airline with a no frills operator is hardly apples for apples.
Pretty much spot on, having worked for malaysia airlines in KL, It was a nice place to work but is very political. In malaysia, the malays are treated much better than any other ethnic group.
And we don’t have class distinction in Ireland?
Flew with them
to and from oz and thought they were great, even food was good! In fairness the 2 lost airplanes were acts of aggression and could have happened to any company esp the Ukrainian shooting down and can’t see why that would deter customers. I hope there fortunes change and feel so bad for the 6000 out of work.
No surprise there
This is very handy for this airline company to sack 6,000 of its work force and restart under a new name maybe they will move to Ireland for lower wages
Alan the average weekly wage in Malaysia is €54, and that’s one off the highest in Asia.
Boganity
That should render Alan embarrassed……oops no it didn’t he’s back at it again.
Boganity I am being funny don’t take my comment serious please .
Ryanair Employees 8500 with a fleet size of 300….Malaysian airlines employees 10,000 fleet size 96!!!!!!
Long Haul/Short Haul
Also very different aircraft
1 Malaysian A380 = 494 passangers
1 Ryanair 737 = 189 passangers
Not everybody wants to take part in Ryanair’s race to the bottom.
Ryanair being used as a benchmark is hilarious…let’s not aspire to much.
Ryanair carried 84.4 million passengers in 2013 …Malaysian airlines carried 17 million passengers …Compare their employee numbers and do the math..
@Boganity…Why not??..Is Ryanair not a successful company or should all companies aspire to be run like Irish Rail
@Neal..I understand that but but if you look at Malaysian Airlines numbers they don’t stack up what ever way you cut it.This company is going under fast…
@Harry
Ryanair do short haul and Malaysian Airlines does mainly long haul…
So comparing these numbers is like comparing Dublin Bus to Citylink… Two completely different models…
There is also the wage bills themselves… How much does the average Ryanair employees make compared to a Malaysian Airlines Employee…
They also offer different service models… A FIAT and BMW are both cars… FIAT is cheaper than BMW, yet which one makes a profit….
Ryanair use contractors at their bases, they also employ a lot of agency flight/cabin crew. So that figure of 3500 is grossly deflated.
Harry’s very quiet Jonathan…probably gone back to Michael O’Leary to tell him the “talking points” sheet he was given is massively flawed as he was just shot down in flames.
I’d suggest that if they’re launching a new company, it might be a bus service.
…And use Airbus instead of Boeing 777
the 777 is arguably the safest jet liner in the world, very few incidents that were not pilot error!
They use airbus a380 already – fantastic plane
Was it the workers fault they have had problems how many will be re – employed in the new company. Is this only being done to stop being sued for millions
NERA would have a field day there!
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