Even as families of those who were on board Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 that disappeared mysteriously two years ago filed lawsuits against the aviation company and others, its chief executive officer was optimistic that things would improve.
And it could start with the renaming of Malaysia Airlines.
Christoph Müller told Handelsblatt in an interview he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.
“I would say there’s no longer a danger to the life of the company, but the patient has many serious illnesses all at once. I’m optimistic: it’s going to work,” he was quoted as saying.
Muller has taken various measures to re-brand the trouble-ridden Malaysia Airlines. Last September, he launched a new company. He said the airline might also get a new name.
“A final decision hasn’t been made. I would say the name has to reference Malaysia. Our reason for existing is to be Malaysia’s national airline and we want that to remain so.”
Referring to the MH370 incident, Muller said: “It’s not like other accidents, which are slowly but steadily forgotten. Every time there’s a new search alert, the subject is brought up again. It’s having a very strong impact on our sales in certain markets because people are simply concerned.”
He added: “It would be wrong if we were simply to choose a new name and new logo, without making any substantial changes.”
Among the changes he has introduced since taking over the helm of Malaysia Airlines last May are: slashing unprofitable routes and letting go 6,000 workers as part of restructuring efforts.
But the problems at Malaysia Airlines began long before the disappearance of Flight MH370 with 293 people on board in March 2014 and the shooting down, months later, of Flight MH17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur by what Dutch authorities said was a Soviet-designed missile, killing all 298 people on board.
From 2001 through 2014, the airline suffered RM8.4 billion in net adjusted losses. It was ailing from years of mismanagement and teetering on the edge of bankruptcy when the government decided to carry out a major restructuring, including getting Muller on board.
Handelsblatt said Müller had also shifted the airline’s focus from the once profitable European-Australian routes to emerging economies in Asia, with a major focus on China. Müller believes Malaysia, with its large Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking populations, was an ideal vacation spot for China’s burgeoning middle class, the report said.
“We’ve created a new company, our employees have new contracts and there’s a completely new management,” Müller said. “Fundamentally, more is new than old and we will offer our passengers a noticeably new product over the next 18 months.”