The management of ailing national airline Malaysia Airlines (MAS) met with representatives of its employee unions and other associations to explain the ramifications of its restructuring exercise, initiated by federal investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd (Khazanah).
In a statement released yesterday, MAS said the meeting was the first step in informing and engaging its staff on the looming overhaul, with details on the airline’s future “forthcoming”.
“As noted by the Prime Minister last week, this is going to be a long process which will require all parties to come together if the restructuring is to succeed,” MAS said, as reported by Channel News Asia.
Last week, Khazanah announced that it would take over the troubled airline, with a a view to completely restructure the company. Putrajaya’s investment arm announced that it intends to de-list MAS from the Bursa Malaysia and take it fully “private” – as private as an airline owned via proxy by the Federal Government can be.
MAS has gone through years of quarterly losses, amounting to more than RM4.3 billion over the past three years due to rising operating costs and perceived mismanagement. This year alone, the airline has lost RM1 billion, partly due to the twin tragedies of Flight MH370’s disappearance in March, and the more recent crash of Flight MH17 over war-torn eastern Ukraine.
See Also:
Khazanah to buy out MAS shares for RM1.4 billion, making it a private company
Suffering Malaysia Air faces painful ‘complete overhaul’
Dr Mahathir doesn’t think Khazanah can save Malaysia Airlines
