Malaysia Airlines Needs Employee Support To Survive Turbulence

By Prem Kumar Panjamorthy KUALA LUMPUR, June 4 (Bernama) -- Malaysia Airlines is now facing one of its most severe turbulences that threatens its very survival. Unless it does something drastic to spur revenue growth, it could face bleak times ahead, especially when other airlines are improving their service quality and offering competitive prices. The road ahead for Malaysia Airlines is simple: it must sell more seats to be profitable. Aviation analysts believe that the arrival of the Airbus 380, the world's largest and most eco-efficient aircraft, will help in repairing and boosting the airline's image. New aircraft deliveries aside, the other compelling factor is having the right promotion to get more people to book their flights on Malaysia Airlines. An analyst from Maybank Investment Bank said Malaysia Airlines must create the buzz for more people to want to fly with it. With its reputation of having the best cabin crew in the world, he said this needed to be told to more people. Raising ticket prices to add to revenue may not be feasible at present, said another analyst, as Malaysia Airlines is not be in a strong position to do so. As a full-fledged premium service airline, it can only do so if service quality increases several notches higher, not only in the cabin but also in other operational areas like ticketing and ground handling. Despite the recent decoupling of a share swap with AirAsia, one researcher with a bank even suggested working with another premium airline partner to raise its service quality. But will it work? The Malaysian Airlines employee unions recently voted to not support the collaboration with AirAsia, thus leading to the abandonment of the share swap deal announced last year. A new business plan for Malaysia Airlines is set to be announced next Monday. It requires one single-minded focus from the 20,000 or so people employed at Malaysia Airlines, to keep about 90 premium service aircraft flying and passengers satisfied. They will have to support it to make things work. And at the other end of the spectrum of the Malaysian aviation industry, the almost 5,000 employees at AirAsia will also have to keep working hard to ensure that the 98 low-cost service airplanes turn in another year of profit. -- BERNAMA