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MAB to keep A380s until 2018
February 19th 2016
Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) has delayed plans to sell off its A380s until 2018, CEO Christoph Mueller told Reuters on Monday. "We need them for the long-haul market," he said. "We are still evaluating what we want to do with the A380. Read More » We have six and we will keep them at least until 2018, when we get the first A350." MAB flies the aircraft on its double daily Kuala Lumpur-Heathrow flights.
The former MAS is scheduled to take delivery of the first of four A350-900s, on lease from Air Lease Corporation (ALC), from late 2017. Two additional options are being reviewed, Muller revealed, and added the A350s would feature primarily on medium-haul, intra-Asia Pacific routes.
The MAB chief said the flag carrier was still aiming for a turnaround in 2018. "We are not profitable yet, but we are getting there," he offered, and said "the markets are soft now and that's not just China. All segments are affected. But we can overcome that".
Mueller hoped to extend MAB’s new codeshare partnership with Emirates Airline to include "all points" on both carriers’ combined networks to "give us many points in, for example Africa and Europe, that we can't fly to but where there is demand".
A major challenge to MAB’s restructuring has been the depreciation of the ringgit against the U.S. dollar, with many costs such as fuel and leases pegged to the greenback, Mueller said.
Separately, the Malaysian government said last week it planned to renew the so-called Rural Air Services agreement with MAB subsidiary, MASwings, when the contract expires next year. Minister of Transport, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, told a media conference the government had agreed, in principle, to sign another seven-year deal with MASwings, but that some of the destinations covered by the 190 million ringgit ($46 million) subsidies agreement would be reviewed.
