Malaysia Airlines believes 2010 is going to be a better year

Malaysia Airlines CEO, Azmil Zahruddin, stated he believes 2010 is going to be a better year for the carrier, as airlines reduce fare discounting (The Star Online, 02-Jan-2010). The carrier still plans to report a net profit of USD438-876 million by 2012.

Malaysia Airlines: "2009 has been a tough year, and I don't think anybody will be sad to leave 2009. I think 2010 will be better, although I don't think when we flip the switch to 2010, things will immediately get better. There will still be some uncertainty, particularly in the first half. Whether 2010 is better than 2008 and 2007 is still debatable…What we've seen in the last few months is that seat factors have been very high. Not just for us, but for the industry as a whole. And I think that will reduce the needs for airlines to discount in order to fill up the seats. What we saw in the first half of 2009 was that seat factors were very low. Airlines had to discount, in order to attract customers. If anything, we've been too successful, and the complaint we get is that customers can't get seats! So I really believe that there is less of a need to discount, and yields will improve next year," Azmil Zahruddin, CEO. Source: The Star Online, 02-Jan-2010.