The Local Guy, many of your points are perfectly valid and I accept any criticism of me that you might have, but because I had many local friends in Brunei when I was there it saddens me to see what could be a good little airline in such strife. You have asked for a more constructive solution, fair enough, but whatever is said will you locals implement it? How many management consultants, advisors, counsellors et al do you need to ask? When I was in Brunei the place was stiff with them in all areas, but the results were usually either ignored if major surgery was required, or happily accepted if nothing too controversial was said. Consultants do know what side their bread is buttered, and are not averse to producing what the client wants to hear. What ever happened to the lengthy, expensive Hay Associates report into RBA then?
Previous local CEOs showed an alarming tendency to concentrate on their own pet projects, [golf course on Crown land, own hotel allegedly with RBA funds etc.] instead of steering the airline, so expats were sought to fix the mess. They had impeccable backgrounds, usually experience of rescuing other problem airlines, and came into the job brimming with ideas, right or wrong, on how to effect the recovery. What happened? They found themselves bogged down in a morass of local intrigue and inertia. After trying for some time to change things and failing, they just accepted the status quo and saw out their contracts as quietly as they could. You now have another new CEO. I hope he can achieve a good result for the locals sake. My constructive solution to the problem, for the little it’s worth, is as follows, but requires a sharp intake of breath.
Brunei has a small population base, for many the only flight they ever undertake is a free Haj, and little to attract mass tourism, [please don't count transit passengers in the tourist total as usually happens!] The competition in the airline industry is intense, none more so than in your area of the Far East. Have you seen the fares recently announced by Air Asia from UK to Australia? Finally, on the horizon, the next generation A350/B787s are supposedly economic flying from UK to OZ non-stop! Sticking ones head in the sand won’t alter these facts.
So what does all this mean? Yes RBA can continue in it’s current size, with soon to be 3 different aircraft types, and it will exist only with vast subsidies to cover it’s losses. Or it can downsize to a realistic level, say 2 or 3 A320s/ B737s [and one type only please] at the very most, on local routes to satisfy the small demand, then it has a chance of actually being viable. You will have at least double the number of local pilots required to crew the airline, with all your own trainers, and massively too many ground staff. Who will decide on the redundancies? Apart from the CEO, and,when the new, slim line RBA is up and running properly, he can go, no expensive bolshie expats need to be used at all. This is of course exactly what the airline was before the 757s arrived, and what a terrific little firm it was, the only difference now is that it would be totally locally run, hopefully to your entire satisfaction! If you need a precedent of a small wealthy country realising that it’s national flag carrier was non-viable, just study what the Swiss did. I am not, however advocating quite such a radical solution as they found, but it has been done before. You seem confident that RBA will still be around in 20 or so years time, I sincerely hope so, but it might just have a better chance in the format I have outlined. Just my 2 cents worth and a bit drastic, but it is intended to be a positive comment.
Best of luck to you.