'We started from nothing' - MAS retirees offer to revive company
Malaysia Airlines retirees are offering to help revive the ailing national carrier, pointing out that some of them had in the past built the airline from nothing.
"When some of us started back in the early 1970s, we started with virtually nothing. This airline was built from scratch. We didn't have pilots, engineers, or even cabin crew...
Malaysia Airlines retirees are offering to help revive the ailing national carrier, pointing out that some of them had in the past built the airline from nothing.
"When some of us started back in the early 1970s, we started with virtually nothing. This airline was built from scratch. We didn't have pilots, engineers, or even cabin crew.
"However, over the past four decades, we created a core of pilots, cabin crew and airline business executives who even went on to help establish various global airlines in India, the Middle East and the Far East," the MAS Retirees Association (Masra) said at a press conference in Petaling Jaya today.
A joint statement from Masra patron Abdul Aziz Abd Rahman and president Abdul Razak Hashim stated that former staff members and retirees are saddened by the present state of the national asset.
"We are here today to offer our services to help resurrect this global icon for all Malaysians to bask in the pride of the famous golden service," the statement read.
Masra attributed MAS' decline to decisions made around a decade ago.
"The national flag bearer is facing a serious threat. The key elements that exacerbate this situation were the rampant shut down of a valuable global network between 2005 and 2008.
"Further, the rampant voluntary separation scheme (VSS) of key technical staff, engineers and pilots at the same time period made this seriously untenable."
Masra's statement came amid the government's evaluation of the future of MAS.
Addressing journalists later, Abdul Aziz stated that it would be an embarrassment if the airline were to be closed down.
"Almost every country in the world... they have their own national carrier. If you want to close it, I think I will feel ashamed. I don't know where to put my face," he said.
The twin blows MAS suffered in 2014 when two of its airplanes crashed only exacerbated the troubles it was already facing at the time.
Flight MH370 was never found, while Flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine where Russian-backed rebels were engaged in fighting with the Ukraine government.
MAS was subsequently delisted and taken over by state sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd as part of a rescue plan.
Khazanah injected some RM3 billion into MAS, which it had to write off as the airline struggled to recover.
The write-off, which made up around half of Khazanah's losses in 2018, dragged the sovereign wealth fund into the red.
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