Malaysia Airlines, which last year mysteriously lost an airliner and had another shot down over Ukraine, has hired a new CEO to re-make the airline into a profitable regional carrier instead of a money-losing international airline. In the process, it may change its name and logo as well; it has already sent termination notices to all employees and re-employment notices to some.
The new CEO, Christoph Mueller, is a veteran airline executive some call “The Terminator.” His whole career after starting at Lufthansa has involved airlines in trouble; some have succeeded with his help (Aer Lingus), others not (Sabena). In an interview last year at Cambridge University, he told business students “The first year of a restructuring is really like a war situation.”
The airline is owned by the Malaysian government, and has been subject to issue of politics and national prestige, as well as contracts tied to political connections. But in the collapse of its brand reputation after last year’s disappearance of MH370, he appears to have been given a free hand. He told the Reuters “I’m hired to run the new company entirely on commercial terms…it’s not a continuation of the old company in a new disguise.”
Among the changes likely to happen are dropping money-losing routes to Europe and the Americas, and a concentration on regional networks. That means looking for buyers of some planes used mainly on the disappearing routes, including several A380s, one of which is in the picture above. Photo: Wikimedia / Marcusaffleck
