Source: AFP Author: 06/16/2008
Subject Concerned: Aircraft Airlines
National carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will redeploy aircraft and cut flights to lower costs amid soaring fuel prices but will not defer their A380 order, a top official said on June 15.
Chairman Munir Majid said the carrier would not change the rescheduled arrival date for the six Airbus A380 super-jumbos, due to arrive in 2011.
The six aircraft were initially supposed to be delivered from January 2007.
"Fuel efficiency and savings is very important. We have to look on a route-by-route basis ... where we have to reduce frequencies or change type of aircraft. These are things the management is doing," he told reporters at a two-day World Economic Forum on East Asia.
Munir also said the carrier would impose fuel surcharges but would not cut staff.
"We are revisiting how we can do cost savings," he said.
Munir said the fuel bill for MAS was about 40 percent of total operating costs. "It only keeps going up as fuel price increases," he said.
Malaysia Airlines hopes to achieve record profits under its recovery plan after it broke back into the black last year.
Munir said the carrier needed the services of the A380s despite surging oil prices and uncertainties in the aviation sector because it needs to replace its aging Boeing 747-400 fleet.
"You think the airline industry is damned forever. The new delivery date (for the A380s) is 2011. Airbus will deliver six A380s between January and August 2011," he said.
"The new schedule is on track as far as we are concerned," Munir added.