Malaysia Airline cutting Workforce
More than 21,000 MAS' staff to know fate by December
7:40pm, Fri: (AFP) Ailing Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) will decide by December whether to trim its workforce of more than 21,000 under a programme to return to profitability by 2004, the transport minister said today.
Dr Ling Liong Sik said MAS was now reorganising its structure and working on ways to cut costs. This might include job cuts but the plan would only be finalised by the year-end.
"We do what is important first, which is to find ways to increase the frequency of MAS flights to lucrative destinations and these destinations are Asian destinations like China, India, Thailand and Indonesia," he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
He said the government would not let MAS fold as happened to Swissair and Australia's Ansett.
"We are trying to salvage whatever we can and continue MAS flying... we do not want to retrench people as we believe these are talented people with unique skills. If we let MAS collapse we would lose all of them."
The flag carrier, which had suffered losses since 1997, would offer voluntary separation schemes before initiating any retrenchment, he added.
Routes axed
MAS on Thursday announced it would axe 12 unprofitable international routes and increase flights in Asia to offset a slump in the global aviation industry following the terrorist attacks in the US last month.
It said the network restructuring would cut losses by up to RM190 million a year and that it expected to break even by 2004.
MAS said passenger volume was expected to fall around 15 percent from last year.
The airline embarked on a plan to return to the black after the government renationalised it in February. It has debts totalling more than RM10 billion.