Malaysia Airlines today axed 6000 staff to save money as passengers continue to shun its planes in response to its two tragic aviation disasters.
Those staff make up almost a third of the airline’s 20,000 workforce, and will ultimately include Malaysia Airlines’ chief executive: Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will only stay in that post until July 2015, the carrier said as it unveiled the details of its recovery plan today, with a new boss announced by the end of this year.
It comes after the airline yesterday posted a Rm307 million (£59 million) loss for the second quarter, nearly double the loss made in the same time a year earlier, and warned of worse financial figures to come.
Some Malaysia Airlines jets have been flying near-empty after the disappearance of flight MH370, en route to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur in March, was followed by flight MH17 being shot down over Ukraine in July. A total of 537 passengers and 29 Malaysia Airlines staff lost their lives in the two tragedies.
Weekly bookings are down 33%, the airline said, adding: “The fact that both incidents have occurred within such a short span of time had exacerbated the situation and severely damaged the airline’s brand and business reputation, accelerating the need to restructure the company.”
The carrier is being taken into state ownership. It has not set out plans for a name change, as some predicted.
