New Malaysia Airlines CEO Bellew to Focus on Airport Costs

4th Jul 2016

Peter Bellew, new Malaysia Airlines Berhad chief executive officer said in his first interview as MAB CEO that the airline will remain committed to its turnaround plan it started with the previous CEO Christoph Mueller. Bellew also said that the carrier will focus on airport costs.

Bellew said in a statement:

I wish to thank the Board of Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) for trusting me to lead the Group and Malaysia Airlines Berhad as chief executive officer. We will fix it. I am sure it will be a road with many interesting turns.

He continued:

Airport costs will be an immediate focus and we are planning to operate some leisure flights from KLIA2 in 2017 where costs are RM33 (US$8.25) per passenger lower or RM5,412 (US$1,350) per flight lower. On one daily flight this simple saving will be RM1,975,380 or US$500,000 per anum. We will pass on these savings to customers with lower fares. Each and every cost of everything we do will be minutely checked daily without changing any quality.

Bellew also said MAB will further focus on rebuilding its relationships with the global travel trade and introduce new routes to yet unserved ASEAN destinations:

The goal will be to fly to customers safely to places they want to go with great value fares and superior service on clean modern aircraft. We will stop things that lose money.

When it comes to airline costs, Bellew said they are now track with fuel savings recorded in the Q1 this year:

Saving money does not mean compromising on safety or on our products and services. It simply means we need to increase productivity and efficiency, invest in modern technology, enter into mutually beneficial partnerships besides identifying and mitigating risks early.

The carrier, Bellew said, hasn’t forgotten its customer service and plans to enhance this segment as well. He said that MAB managed to close the gap between revenue and costs in the previous quarter significantly, but that more work is still needed here.

Finally, the new CEO addressed the aviation staff at MAB, saying:

I will work to ensure we have a large group of Malaysian nationals trained in the next three years who are capable of leading the airline through 2030.

Bellew took over as chief executive officer and managing director of MAB and its holding company Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd this Friday, replacing Christoph Mueller who announced his departure in April for “private reasons”.