Friday, August 30, 2024 Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) remains fully dedicated to maintaining safe and reliable operations, prioritizing the stability of our services. In response to the latest directive from the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM), MAG has proactively reduced its operational capacity to ensure the highest safety standards are upheld. Although this decision was challenging, our primary focus is on our customers, ensuring we deliver credible flight schedules and an enhanced travel experience.
The reduction, which affects 20% of our network capacity, includes routes operated by Malaysia Airlines, Firefly, and Amal across Domestic Malaysia, ASEAN, North Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Greater China, South Asia, and the Middle East. As global air travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, airlines worldwide, including MAG, have faced challenges such as supply chain disruptions. We have strategically restored our capacity while considering the pace of supply chain recovery.
The industry-wide shortage of resources has led to delays in the production of essential aircraft parts, extending the turnaround times for engine overhauls and repairs. This situation has impacted the MAG fleet, which depends on external partners for these services. Despite these hurdles, MAG has consistently maintained the quality of its maintenance work, both internally and externally, albeit at increased financial costs.
We are working closely with regulators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and other stakeholders to address these operational challenges. Our efforts are focused on ensuring the timely delivery of high-quality spare parts and maintaining a robust aircraft maintenance program. The global shortage of parts has also affected the on-time delivery of new aircraft orders, impacting our fleet planning.
MAG was scheduled to receive 17 new aircraft by 2024 as part of our fleet modernization program. However, to date, we have only received four Boeing 737-8 aircraft out of the 13 expected by 2024. Similarly, for the A330neo, we were supposed to receive four aircraft, but only three are now expected by year-end, as committed by Airbus.
Additionally, MAG has experienced attrition among our skilled workforce as new Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) players enter the Malaysian market. To address this, we are collaborating with partners to enhance our manpower, increase our skilled engineering workforce, and improve remuneration packages to sustain a strong talent pipeline. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this situation may have caused our customers.
We assure you that our team is working diligently to offer affected customers compensation options, including flight reallocations and full refunds without penalty charges. We encourage passengers to use the ‘My Booking’ feature on our website for quicker service and to check the status of their flights, given the increased traffic at our Global Contact Centre. These measures, though difficult, are crucial to ensuring the safe and reliable operations of our services moving forward.
We thank our customers for their understanding and patience as we work to resolve these issues and look forward to serving you better in the future..
