Interview with Malaysian Airlines Bhd (MAS) chief executive officer Christoph Mueller at Khazanah Malaysia Bhd in KLCC. AZMAN GHANI / The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines Bhd posted a profit in February - its maiden positive monthly result - and is on track to return to profitability by 2018, its group chief executive officer Christoph Mueller (pic) told AP.
“For a company that lost RM2bil just last year, if you are able to break even for a month or so, it means the financial gap between revenue and cost has significantly closed, and that is good news that tells us that we are on the right trajectory,” he said in an interview.
In its quarterly (Dec 2015-Feb 2016) update of its restructuring last month, Mueller said continued progress made in all key areas such as on-time performance and costs.
“Malaysia Airlines has been operating for six months now and although we have a long way to go and areas for improvement, we are making steady progress in the restructuring,” he said in the statement.
The carrier said revenue per available seat kilometre for the quarter improved 10% year-on-year on the back of the route optimisation exercise conducted earlier. Seat load factor is also showing improvements with over 350,000 passengers traveling with Malaysia Airlines over the Chinese New Year holiday.
In January, Malaysia Airlines announced that it would codeshare on Emirates’s four times daily service to Dubai from Kuala Lumpur from Feb 15 as part of the partnership signed in early December 2015.
German-born Mueller is the first non-Malaysian at the helm of the national carrier. Malaysia Airlines Bhd took off on Sept 1 last year by taking over Malaysian Airline System Bhd operations, including assets and liabilities.
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