Taipei Times
Date: August 1, 2016
By: B.K. Sidhu, The Star/000 Asia News Network

Malaysia — There were doubts when Peter Bellew got the top job at Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAS).

When his name topped the list as the candidate to take over from Christoph Mueller as the chief executive officer (CEO), many wondered if he was cut out for the job. Simply put, they felt his expertise was in the area of low-cost aviation and not in the premium segment, fearing that as the airline was being nursed back to health, it might regress.

The work Mueller had started was incomplete and more needed to be fixed.

Branding and perception are still the biggest challenges. MAS has gone through a roller-coaster ride over the past few years. Having reported years of losses due to a high cost base and not selling enough seats, its income was simply not enough to cover its cost.

After undertaking so many restructuring programs to address its finances, none of them worked. What pushed MAS into a tailspin was the two air disasters in 2014, unprecedented and shocking at the same time, which made it very difficult for it to stay on course.

MAS’ problem, apart from cost, was that it was flying to places where the yields were not as attractive. It had too many employees and its issues were fundamental in nature, which without a clean-up, would have been near impossible to correct.     [FULL  STORY]