NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
Malaysia Airlines says its strategy to revive its fortunes is beginning to pay off. Jennifer Morris reports from a fam trip to Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur
A380 aircraft are part of carrier’s fleet
Malaysia Airlines ‘on track with business turnaround’
Malaysia Airlines has made a quarterly profit for the first time in six years and is expecting a recovery in UK visitor numbers to the country after a sharp decline last year.
The airline wouldn’t reveal
details of its first-quarter results but said it didn’t expect to post a full-year profit until 2018. Tourism Malaysia figures show
there was a drop from 446,000 UK visitors in 2014 to 401,000 in 2015. However, for 2016 the
flag-carrier expects to see a recovery “back towards the 2014 level” and is targeting refloating
Paul Simmons: ‘Quarterly profit is a major achieve- ment’
or leaving government ownership by 2020. Two years on from aviation
tragedies that sent shockwaves around the world, the airline remains in the throes of a three-phase turnaround plan due to run until 2018. Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared on March 8, 2014, while just four months later flight MH17 was shot down flying between Amsterdam and the Malaysian capital. Chief commercial officer Paul Simmons said: “To rebuild it takes a while. In certain markets it’s pretty much back to where it was, or even ahead. In the UK in particular we need to carry on with brand-building activity.” Simmons said Malaysia Airlines had moved past the “less pleasant”
20
travelweekly.co.uk 16 June 2016
“We’d like to rebrand because we believe the changes we’re making deserve it”
part of the plan, having shed about 8,000 staff. He said there are no plans to reduce the network, fleet or staff further. “If you think about what’s happened to the airline in the past two or three years – not only with the tragedies but with the massive downsizing and reshaping – to get it to a profit in this quarter was a major achievement,” said Simmons. “We haven’t committed to continually delivering annual profit until 2018, so we’re on track. “We’re now flying the routes
we want to fly with the aircraft we want to fly and starting to rebuild the brand as well. “There’s a long way to go and
I have no misguided views of optimism that we’re there yet, but it’s nice to see now that we can actually deliver the business plan.” Simmons added: “We would
still like to rebrand because we believe the service changes and improvements we’re making deserve a rebrand. Exactly when we’re still looking at.” He said a rebrand would not necessarily mean a renaming.
Carrier leases two A350s ahead of network expansion
Malaysia Airlines is leasing two new Airbus A350-900s to complement an existing four on order, as it seeks to reach a “critical fleet size”. Chief executive Christoph Mueller said the additions would allow standby aircraft to undergo scheduled maintenance, but would also enable future network expansion.
He added: “Technological and innovative advancements make flying this aircraft a real pleasure and it will bring a whole new experience to our offerings, with the aircraft able to operate non-stop from Kuala Lumpur to London and throughout Asia.” Preparation for the
introduction of the new aircraft, planned for late 2017, is ahead of schedule. Malaysia Airlines says
it actively assesses new route opportunities on an ongoing basis and is currently evaluating the possibility of serving “unique and new” destinations with narrow- body aircraft with long-range capability.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76
