KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 3 — Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim vowed today to help Malaysian Aviation Group stay “successful”, as its embattled national carrier subsidiary Malaysia Airlines Bhd continues to face headwinds from severe supply and manpower shortage.
Speaking at Khazanah Nasional Berhad’s 30th anniversary celebration, Anwar congratulated the sovereign wealth fund but also urged it not to be complacent in the face of more complex challenges.
“I want to tell Khazanah, Malaysia Airlines we will remain committed to ensure our airlines remain successful because it is our national airline and it has to come back to perform,” he said.
Anwar was not clear if the government would inject more money when he pledged to help the company, but in a brief press conference Anwar said the government would do anything to “uplift” the struggling airline “through whatever reasonable ways”.
Anwar also suggested that much of the airline’s problem came from political decisions made to benefit cronies, and that the effects are still being felt until today. He then vowed to fix the problems.
“I must remind (you) that sometimes political decisions that are not transparent, that favours one or two cronies, damage a company that we were once proud of,” he said.
“And because of these mistakes the effects are felt by us until today. We can’t erase this factual history. Because of the intention to preserve the interests of cronies they neglect the interests of the people. But the effort to remedy this has taken place and I would like to congratulate you.”
The national carrier has struggled over the past decade due to two fatal aviation disasters in 2014. It was delisted that year and Malaysian Airline System (MAS) was restructured into MAG.
Khazanah is MAG’s largest shareholder, which oversaw the restructuring that helped MAG slowly edge towards profitability. The carrier reported a net profit of RM766 million in 2023, its first net profit since it was formed in 2015 and the first since MAS last made a profit in 2010.
But in June, Malaysia’s Civil Aviation Authority carried out an investigation into Malaysia Airlines that found several significant safety and maintenance issues including a shortage of skilled workers and mechanical components.
The strings of technical issues besetting the airline in the last few weeks have since sparked safety concerns, with aviation analysts saying MAG risks upending the positive turnaround it had achieved in 2023 if the problems are not rectified immediately.
MAG group managing director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail had been quoted saying corrective measures are being taken “to ensure the fleet’s long-term reliability and operational robustness”.
