A culmination of several factors contributed to the delays in Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flights recently, Deputy Transport Minister Tengku Azlan Sultan Abu Bakar told the Dewan Rakyat today.

The factors included flight rescheduling, the introduction of a new passenger service system and other technical problems.

As a result, the national carrier's flight punctuality rate dropped to 62 per cent compared with an average of between 82.9 per cent and 88.1 per cent.

However the deputy minister told the House that MAS had addressed the problem by introducing new flight schedules with adequate buffer time.

The national airline has also mobilised its engineers from Subang to the KL International Airport (KLIA) to enable repair work to be carried out quickly, he added.

"If one or two planes face technical problems, and we have a plane shortage situation, of course the schedule will be affected." he added.

"For this month, the MAS flight punctuality rate has improved to 82 per cent," he said.

Responding to a question by Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera) on claims that MAS' policy of dismissing workers to balance its books, Tengku Azlan said that the company was doing its best to rectify the matter.

The deputy minister also said that his ministry and MAS would be looking into complaints of rude ground staff.

Replacing aircraft

Tengku Azlan also said that plans were afoot for MAS to replace its aircraft in line with its ongoing aircraft revamp exercise.

He was replying to Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah (BN-Gua Musang) who wanted to know whether MAS' reorganisation included plans to replace old aircraft.

"In line with its five-year plan, MAS plans to buy long-range narrow-body aircraft to enable it to operate in new sectors which are not suitable for Airbus 330 and Boeing 737-400 aircraft," he said.

To a question from Bung Mokhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) on an incident where a MAS aircraft had to make an emergency landing due to a faulty landing gear, Tengku Azlan said the matter would be investigated and assured him that the airline would not compromise on passengers' safety.