This article first appeared in Forum, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on September 9, 2024 - September 15, 2024

For an airline with the tag line “Malaysian Hospitality”, Malaysia Airlines is struggling to cope with providing its customers with a pleasant travel experience.

The last three months have been particularly difficult for the national carrier, which was on the path to profitability after a losing streak of some 13 years. Malaysia Airlines has been buffeted by a series of flight disruptions due to mechanical failure in its planes, delays in replacing its ageing fleet of aircraft and an exodus of engineering staff.

Last week, the airline reduced its network by 20% — a bullet it had to bite to ensure the reliability and stability of its services. Subsequently, following a technical audit, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia reduced the validity of its air operator’s licence to one year from three.

Having only returned to the black in its financial year ended December 2023 — its first since 2010 — Malaysia Airlines has flown into a perfect storm.

It now has six months to enhance the reliability of its fleet of aircraft, recruit skilled workers to beef up its engineering department and reduce reliance on third parties for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services. Malaysia Airlines also has to address the issue of restocking its spare parts with products from original equipment manufacturers to ensure quick repairs to its aircraft.

Some have pointed the finger at the setting up of two competing MRO centres in Subang as a reason for Malaysia Airlines losing its technical staff. While it is true that the new MROs are competitors to Malaysia Airlines, they are not the root cause for the problems that have forced the national carrier to cut its network.

Malaysia Airlines has been hit by a combination of problems, all coming at the same time.

Moreover, losing good staff to companies from Singapore is a perennial problem not only for Malaysia Airlines but also many other companies in Malaysia.

Bigger airlines invested heavily in new planes way before Malaysia Airlines and have larger fleets. Singapore Airlines, for example, has a ready stock of aircraft spare parts to rectify engine problems immediately. Last week, a plane belonging to Scoot, the low-cost version of Singapore Airlines, flying from Melbourne had to land in Jakarta due to engine problems.

Within hours, spare parts and a replacement plane had been sent to Jakarta to move the passengers over and to repair the affected plane.

As it stands, even AirAsia has a bigger fleet than Malaysia Airlines with 216 Airbus planes and is able to weather storms better.

The advantage of staying with just one manufacturer is that it allows the airline to save on maintenance costs, easily source spare parts and reduce training cost for pilots.

Malaysia Airlines has a combination of narrow-body aircraft that it gets from Boeing and wide-body planes from Airbus for a total of 70. As part of its fleet renewal, Malaysia Airlines was supposed to get 17 new planes from Boeing this year and four from Airbus. But so far, Boeing has delivered only four and Airbus will deliver one wide-body plane at the end of the year.

AirAsia, despite its large fleet of Airbus planes, has its fair share of problems. It suffers from delays and disruptions in services too, but has not received as much bad publicity as the national carrier for several reasons.

Chiefly, AirAsia’s customer segment is different from that of Malaysia Airlines. The low-cost carrier (LCC) services destinations that are within three to five hours of flying time and runs several flights a day. There are instances when flights whose departure times are close to each other are merged. Passengers complain, but they tolerate delays of a few hours.

AirAsia has even delayed international flights within the region, but it gives advance notice. For instance, recently, a group of travellers on a three-day holiday related how they were told one week before their departure that their return flight was delayed by another day. So, the travellers ended up staying an additional night in Siem Reap, Cambodia at their own cost.

Nobody likes delays in their flights. But the majority of those flying AirAsia or other LCCs accept the fact that cheaper fares come with their own set of problems. Normally, travellers on a strict schedule use full-service carriers such as Malaysia Airlines, which is why when the national carrier cancels flights or has disruptions, it becomes unacceptable.

Nevertheless, Malaysia Airlines is not alone in falling behind in its services. Both domestic and international carriers have been facing disruptions in their flight schedules in recent months.

According to statistics provided by the Malaysian Aviation Commission (Mavcom), the four  major locally incorporated airlines failed in their performance on delivering timely services in July based on flights operated out of both the airports in Sepang.

Mavcom’s benchmark for airline performance is an On Time Performance (OTP) rate of above 85%. The OTP rate is benchmarked on flights departing within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.

In July, AirAsia’s OTP rate for domestic flights was 68.9% while Malaysia Airlines recorded 67.2% and Batik Air, which is the third domestic airline, clocked 74.4%.

For international flights, Malaysia Airlines’ OTP rate in July was the lowest at 56.9% while AirAsia’s was 65.6% and AirAsia X’s was 77.4%. Third player Batik Air posted 58.8%.

These statistics do not take into account the frequency or flying time of the flights. AirAsia, with more than 50% of the domestic market share, has more flights within the country and the region. Malaysia Airlines has the lion’s share of flights that have more than seven hours of flying time.

On the international scene, Cathay Pacific had to cancel 34 return flights for a few days starting from last Wednesday due to concerns over engine problems in its Airbus A350 fleet. Wizz Air had to cut down on its network due to engine problems in its planes while British Airways has cancelled more flights from Heathrow Airport over the last year than EasyJet Airways, which is an LCC.

Malaysia Airlines is not the only airline that has been let down by its dependence on Boeing for the delivery of new planes. Alaska Airlines and United Airlines, the biggest purchasers of Boeing narrow-body 737 Max series planes, have expressed their anxiety about Boeing’s manufacturing delays.

The saving grace for Malaysia Airlines is that it has bitten the bullet by cutting down on its network for the next six months. The airline has admitted its failings, prioritised safety and is prepared to reduce flights at the expense of profits.

M Shanmugam is a contributing editor at The Edge

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