Malaysia Airlines to make some 'painful decisions' as part of restructure

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) stated (29-Feb-2012) the outlook for 2012 is dependent on first reviewing its operations, including taking some "painful decisions" to improve its operations and reduce costs. MAS Group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya commented "the bottom-line Group losses for 2011 underscore the imperative need for Malaysia Airlines to immediately adopt strong measures to stop the bleeding. These include staff redeployment,increasing productivity and efficiency, relentless cost control and making further route reviews. We are also implementing an aggressive sales & marketing strategy". The carrier stated its immediate action plans are as follows:

• Strengthening the balance sheet;
• Consolidating its route network. To date, the carrier has already reduced capacity by almost 9%;
• Winning back customers, to be achieved through the introduction of A380 from Jul-2012, improving the customer experience and implementing an aggressive marketing campaign;
• Relentless cost focus;
• Re-launching short-haul operation by 1H2012;
• Forming alliances and partnerships starting with joining the oneworld alliance at the end 2012 with other partnerships to follow. [more - original PR]