MAS retirees: Let us help revive national carrier
Association offers expert advice to return airline to ‘glory days’
PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia Airlines Retirees Association (Masra) has made an emotional appeal to the government, urging it not to shut down the national carrier.
The association also offered to help revive the loss-making Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS), and return it to its “glory days”, by providing expert advice.
Speaking at a press conference, Masra patron Tan Sri Aziz Abdul Rahman said they were confident they could help save the company.
“I am very confident we can save the airline – we have world-class pilots, engineers and cabin crew.
“Among us, we have the expertise. We can help bring the airline back to its glory days,” said Aziz, who was among the key individuals involved in the setting up of the airline in the 1970s.
The association is made up retired captains, pilots, engineers and finance experts, among others.
If their offer to help revive the airline is taken up, Aziz said the first thing that they would do is to look into MAS’ books to see “what went wrong” as the airline’s passenger load factor was still good.
“Factors like fuel price and the impact of foreign exchange have always been there – it is not something new.
“Having more competitors is also no excuse – other airlines are still able to do well despite the competition,” he said.
He also criticised the move to bring in expatriates to helm the company during recent years, saying Malaysia Airlines had been built from scratch and brought to world-class standards by Malaysian experts.
Aziz urged the government to decide on how to retain MAS as the country’s national carrier.
The government, he said, could call for proposals on how this can be achieved, and possibly consider a joint venture with the private sector.
Two weeks ago, Khazanah Nasional Bhd reported a loss of RM6.3bil for 2018, due to a RM7.3bil impairment – of which about half came from MAS.
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad then said the government would study various options before deciding on MAS’ fate.
The options including shutting it down, selling it or keeping it going with further cash infusion.
However, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng recently assured that the government would not shut down the airline.
During the media briefing yesterday, Masra president Capt Abdul Razak Hashim said the impact of shutting down MAS would be “catastrophic”, considering the 13,000 jobs that would be lost.
“We always believed that airlines must be run by proper airline experts – not those from other fields,” he said.
Former MAS (aerospace development) vice-president Sitham Nadarajah said MAS’ maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) division had once been highly lucrative, providing third-party maintenance repair and overhaul service for many foreign airlines.
“Now the company has lost all its foreign approvals, which means it can no longer provide these services and this was a big loss of revenue,” he said.