Building a network for 2028

IN ten years time, Malaysia Airlines will once again scale global skies.

That is the plan and Captain Izham Ismail, the new group CEO of Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS), has got his network team working on the plan so to decide on aircraft requirements, destinations and routes.

The old MAS used to fly long haul right to Argentina, South Africa and North America, but all were cut short because it was bleeding on most of its long haul routes. The twin air disasters in 2014 set it back further and now it is a regional airline with London as its only long haul route.

Once a pilot, who used to scale the global skies, Izham knows what connectivity means to a country and passengers, and how transit traffic and airline alliances works for an airline. He needs to find ways how MAS can scale that heights again.

“Network is key to an airline, it has to be robust, agile and profitable, notwithstanding that we are a flag carrier and we have a balancing act for some routes that may not profitable. All that has to be taken into consideration,’’ Izham says.

About 20% of its routes are top earners, and the bottom 20% losing money and the rest just break even. He has got his people in labs to work out ways how to improve on those statistics.

“We need a vision for the future, we need to plan for aircraft requirement and destinations for 2028 and work backwards.

“It takes time to get aircraft so the planning is an essential part of route and network management. Whatever we do, it must represent Malaysia and be profitable,’’ he adds. — By B.K. SIDHU