PETALING JAYA (April 3):- Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has dropped its plan to establish a short-haul regional premium airline and will instead offer such services in-house as a division under the national carrier.
Without offering any reason, MAS Chief Operating Officer (Short Haul) Ignatius M.C. Ong said there was already a slight business module realignment for the regional airline initiative.
"Strategy and objective of the short-haul operations will remain unchanged but there will be no new airline.
"The operations will come under the banner of Malaysia Airlines," he told reporters here after launching Firefly's fifth anniversary.
Ong also said MAS's organisation structure remained unchanged and the top management would make an official announcement soon.
MAS Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya is in charge of the national carrier's long-haul operations while his deputy, Mohammed Rashdan Yusof, looks after the airline's short-haul operations.
Late last year, Ahmad Jauhari, when revealing MAS's business plan, announced the establishment of a new regional premium airline by mid-2012 to focus on short-haul premium travel to profitable routes such as Asean and China.
He had said then that MAS would run the new entity without interference from other associated entities and the new airline would be a new business model for sustainable profitability and ensure focus on unique needs of regional premium travellers.
The plan was also for the regional airline to fly all domestic and regional routes serviced by MAS today.
Malaysia Airlines was in the red for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011, with a net loss of RM2.52 billion, on the back of RM13.9 billion in revenue, thus marking its worst financial results since its inception.
For the fourth quarter, the national carrier recorded a net loss of RM1.28 billion on a turnover of RM3.68 billion. – Bernama
Without offering any reason, MAS Chief Operating Officer (Short Haul) Ignatius M.C. Ong said there was already a slight business module realignment for the regional airline initiative.
"Strategy and objective of the short-haul operations will remain unchanged but there will be no new airline.
"The operations will come under the banner of Malaysia Airlines," he told reporters here after launching Firefly's fifth anniversary.
Ong also said MAS's organisation structure remained unchanged and the top management would make an official announcement soon.
MAS Chief Executive Officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya is in charge of the national carrier's long-haul operations while his deputy, Mohammed Rashdan Yusof, looks after the airline's short-haul operations.
Late last year, Ahmad Jauhari, when revealing MAS's business plan, announced the establishment of a new regional premium airline by mid-2012 to focus on short-haul premium travel to profitable routes such as Asean and China.
He had said then that MAS would run the new entity without interference from other associated entities and the new airline would be a new business model for sustainable profitability and ensure focus on unique needs of regional premium travellers.
The plan was also for the regional airline to fly all domestic and regional routes serviced by MAS today.
Malaysia Airlines was in the red for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2011, with a net loss of RM2.52 billion, on the back of RM13.9 billion in revenue, thus marking its worst financial results since its inception.
For the fourth quarter, the national carrier recorded a net loss of RM1.28 billion on a turnover of RM3.68 billion. – Bernama
