Malaysia Airlines’ new chief executive was today poised to swing the axe on 6,000 staff from the troubled carrier’s 20,000-strong workforce in a bid to pull the airline out of its nosedive.
Malaysia has sent 20,000 letters of termination to workers today, but will rehire roughly 14,000 of them in the next fortnight.
Christopher Mueller, nicknamed “The Terminator” for his record in slashing jobs at Aer Lingus and Belgium’s Sabena, has said it will take around three years to return the airline to profitability. He was brought in at the start of May after the airline’s two disasters in 2014, when one plane disappeared and one was shot down over Ukraine.
The loss-making airline is to be completely rebranded from September and will cut routes as it tries to lower its costs.
“It’s not a continuation of the old company in a new disguise, everything is new,” said Mueller, who also helped turn around Germany’s Lufthansa.He today declared it “technically bankrupt”.
Malaysia, also facing intense competition from low-cost carrier AirAsia and its affiliate AirAsia X, has already been trying to sell two of its A380s.
