On 8-8-2011 the MAS-AirAsia share swap was inked by Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar, the MD of Khazanah, and Tan Sri Tony Fernandes of AirAsia. The the Advisor of the said share swap was none other than Dato’ Seri Nazir Razak of CIMB. On 6-9-2013 both MAS and AirAsia were fined RM10 million each for “collaborating to integrate some routes in which they had earlier competed” under the said share swap. Part 1 was about the inking of the said MAS -AirAsia share swap with the advice from Datuk Seri Nazir Razak / CIMB and Bain & Co, HERE and Part 2 was the chronology of events after the said share swap before the appointment of AJ as Group CEO of MAS, HERE.
19 -9-2011 En Ahmad Jauhari Yahya aka AJ was appointed the CEO of MAS. We have to be fair to AJ. It will be unconscionable for all reasonable men to attribute all the wrong doings that were perpetrated throughout the 9 months notorious share swap to AJ. Similarly it will be equally unconscionable for all reasonable men to be oblivious of glaring facts. September to October 2011 The good samaritan AJ gave up MAS KUL/Sydney/KUL route for AirAsia X. This route was reserved for MAS to fully utilise its new A380.
October 2011 Rumour has it that characters like Shane Nollan and Andy Holmes of PlaneConsult have been seen roaming around in MAS premises freely. Of course, no one knew for sure what they were doing then. May be he and his friends were playing hide and seek with En Mohamad Rashdan Yusof aka Danny! Rumour has it that they were already on the payroll of MAS then.
4-10-2011 MAS terminated its operation to Bandung, which was a profitable route. After the termination AirAsia was the only airline to operate flight KUL/Bandung/KUL. The fare of AirAsia for Bandung suddenly double up.
18-10-2011 Firefly ceased its jet operation to Kuching and Sibu.
AJ said “The takeover of jet services is an important part of the Group’s business realignment exercise and is prompted by the need to address network and fleet restructuring plans for short-haul jet services.
“With the consolidation of Firefly’s jet operations under the Group,Malaysia Airlines will focus on the business of growing our premium full-service segment”. Read HERE.
AJ also said, “The withdrawal was based on our own independent internal profitability and yield analysis. This accounts for almost 12% of our passenger capacity and we estimate that the ongoing route rationalisation will improve loads, increase yields and have a profit impact of RM220-302 million for 2012.” Read HERE.
The sudden termination of these east Malaysian routes was one of the factors that MyCC fined MAS and AirAsia RM10 million each.
15-10-2010 En Mohamed Rashdan Yusof aka Danny, the whiz kid of Khazanah, was appointed as the director of MAS. He was the nominee of Khazanah. He and Tan Sri Azman Yahya of SCOMI fame were the only remained as directors of two directors of MAS after the notorious sMAS-AirAsia share swap. On hind sight, these two personalities was kept as directors for a purpose best known to themselves and Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar.
21-10-2011 AJ briefed Public Account Committee (PAC) of Parliament that Firefly was making losses to the tune of RM89 million. Can anyone in MAS help to confirm the truth of this statement because MAS has recently beefed up Firefly with new aircraft. But at that material tiem, under AJ MAS was trying to wind down Firefly operation by the discontinuation of flights, in HERE.
November/December 2011 Mr Shihaj Kutty, the qualified hotel administrator, was brought into MAS by Mohamed Rashdan Yusof.
21-11-2011 Tan Sri Azman Mokhtar told PAC in Parliament that the share swap and Comprehensive Collaborative Framework (CCF) were “arm length transactions” and it was a “JUDGMENT CALL”. Read HERE.
December 2011 PlaneConsult, the AirAsia’s consultant, submitted a “Proposal To Provide Support for Implementation Support for MAS”. Below were the specific four areas it has specifically identified in:
Implementation support for MAS Organisational and Process change within Engineering & Maintenance Commercial,
- Fleet Planning,
- Flight/Group Operations & OCC
- “… local individuals have already been identified and recommended as suitable to assume permanent roles within a restructured MAS”. Read HERE.
1-2-2012 En Azhari Dahlan, the fromAirAsia, was appointed Head of MRO of MAS.
14-12-2011 Malaysia Airlines Implements Route Rationalisation to Stem Losses and Improve Regional Network. Was this true? Not really, because after only 6 months as in July 2012 AJ reinstated Dubai and other routes recently in HERE. The reinstatement of Dubai and other routes with the help of Seabury Consulting in HERE.
Malaysia Airlines has embarked on a significant route rationalisation exercise as part of its Business Plan announced last week, to stem its losses anticipated this year and in 2012.
The route rationalization exercise takes effect early next year and involves the withdrawal from the following loss-making routes:
- Effective 6 January 2012: Daily flights Kuala Lumpur – Surabaya vv B737 route
- Effective 10 January 2012: Thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Dubai vv A330 route
- Effective 12 January 2012: Twice-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Karachi – Dubai vv A330 route
- Effective 13 January 2012: Twice-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Dubai – Damman vv A330 route
- Effective 30 January 2012: Daily Langkawi – Penang – Singapore vv B737 route
- Effective 31 January 2012: Thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Johannesburg vv B777 route
- Effective 1 February 2012: Twice-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Cape Town – Buenos Aires vv B747 route
- Effective 2 February 2012: Thrice-weekly Kuala Lumpur – Rome vv B777 route
AJ said, “The withdrawal was based on our own independent internal profitability and yield analysis. This accounts for almost 12% of our passenger capacity and we estimate that the ongoing route rationalisation will improve loads, increase yields and have a profit impact of RM220-302 million for 2012.” HERE.
December 2011 Firefly to stop of jet operation and all aircrafts will be taken over by painted with MAS livery.
17-1-2012 AirAsia X CEO Azran Osman-Rani announced in Sydney that AirAsia X will launch its daily flight to Sydney on 2-4-2012. Read HERE. AJ handed over the additional profitable Sydney route to AirAsia X on a silver platter devoid of reason.
4-1-2012 AJ was taken in with hook and sinker by the said Proposal presented by PlaneConsult in December 2011 and formally appointed PlaneConsult as MAS consultant. Mas was literally their playing ground for a three months. PlaneConsult was paid 300 EURO (equivalent to RM1,200) per hour and Mr Conors McCarthey 200 EURO (equivalent to RM1,200).
The known consultan fees paid to PlaneConsutl was RM2.8 million in HERE. Yours truly believe that it should be more because it is a world renown consultant that was also used by AirAsia and its chairman, Mr Connors McCarthy, is also the director of AirAsia.
It would appear that the local “good professionals” qualified for key positions in MAS were confined AirAsia key officers except one the “Biscuit Lady” from Daone Biscuit. AJ appointed the following person to key positions in MAS.
The questionable appointment:
- 1-2-2012 Azhari Dhalan, the Head of Engineering was appointed head of MRO of MAS. The first most important appointment of AirAsia’s key officer as Head of MAS Engineering.
- January 2012 Shane Nollan of PlaneConsult appointed as Director Commercial, a post previously held by the CEO of MAS, YM Tengku Azmil
- 14-2-2011 Rozman Omar, the former CFO of AirAsia was appointed CFO of MAS.
- Puan Nor Zalida Ahmad appointed Acting Head of Strategic Communication. She is believed to be related to Datuk Kamarudin Meranun. On 14-1-2013 Dato’ Najmuddin Abdullah assuming the positing of Head of Communication. He is now the SVP for Strategic Communication.
- Zahrah Zaid popularly known as the “Biscuit Lady” from Daone Biscuit company, was appointed as Head of HR
- En Al-Ishal Ishak, from Bakara Telecommunication, was appointed as Head of Promotion and Marketing in charge of rebranidng. He was appointed in January 2012. He was one of the key men behind the change of the MAS logo and livery to pale blue. On 30-9-2012 he has resigned after the the share swap was unnwound. He has since joined AirAsia as the head of brand and ancillary income. Read HERE.
- 19- 1-2012 Dr Hugh Dunleavy was appointed by AJ as Head of Network and Revenue Management. Thereafter, MAS recruited the remaining 6 more “Bollywood and Hollywood stars”. Read HERE.
21-1-2012 Kuala Lumpur AirAsia X has announced that it will fly to Sydney Australia from April 1. Sydney is AirAsia X’s fourth Australian destination after Gold Coast, Melbourne and Perth. The airline’s attempts over the past four years to operate the route have been thwarted by Malaysia Airlines’ objections but have been swept aside after the two airlines’ landmark share swap deal last year (ATW Daily News, Aug. 10, 2011). D7 said it will suspend services to the UK. Read HERE.
February 2012 En Mohamad Rashdan Yusof aka Danny was planning to start a new company called MAS Sdn Bhd. He was referring MAS Sdn Bhd in meetings as “My Airline”.
12-2-2012 En Rozman Omar from AirAsia was appointed Chief Finance Officer of MAS.
February/March 2012 En Ai-Ishal ishak, Head of Promotion and Marketing commissioned Landor Associates London to provide deisgn for livery of MAS. The new deisgn by Landor was used on the A380, HERE.
March/April 2012 MAS started to carry 50,000 AirAsia X passengers on its flight at below market fares to and from London, Pris, Mumbai and other destinations. Please read “Now Everyone Can Fly MAS with Low Cost Fares” Part 1 HERE.
3-3-2012 MAS began to carry AirAsia X passengers without any formal agreement entered into. It was as though MAS was doing a national service for AirAsia X. MAS was carrying passengers to Mumbai with payment of RM390 fuel surcharge only. When at that material time, MAS internet fare was RM618 EXCLUDING FUEL CHARGES, AIRPORT TAX AND OTHER CHARGES.
It was clear that MAS was making losses to help AirAsia X to carry its passengers to London, Paris and Mumbai after it terminated these routes.
Such practice by Shane Nollan with the approval of AJ was unheard of in the aiviation industry because under such circumstances MAS or other airline would have taken advantage of the situation to charge market fares with no discount. But AJ wasextremely accommodative for reason best known to him. For the said online ticket of the Munbai passenger please read HERE.
March 2012 MAS finally terminated its operation in Italy. MAS staffs in Italy protested in HERE.
17-3-2012 Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof was trying to defend the Share Swap and CCF. “Saying that passing judgment on the CCF and share swap now was premature, Mohd Nor said people should judge the team by the results under their new business plan.” HERE.
20-3-2012 Tan Sri Md Nor Md Ysuof held a press conference to justify the share swap that the share swap was “THE SOLUTION AND NOT PROBLEM for MAS”. He reiterated MAS board’s confidence in “Comprehensive Collaborative Framework” (CCF) will benefit MAS and AirAsia by promoting synergies in many areas, in HERE.
28-3-2012 at 12:56 am (mid night) AJ’s spin doctor sent out email to tell MAS staffs that a Re-accommodation agreement with AirAsia X has been entered into but with very little detail. It was just a damaged control exercise. Read HERE.
That midnight email was an afterthought because yours truly exposed that MAS had already started to carry AirAsia X passengers well before the said agreement was entered into.
2-4-2012 AirAsia X launch its KUL/Sydney/KUL flight. The Government has reserved this additional Sydney for MAS to operate for one year after took delivery of its A380. But the kind AJ handed this profitable route to AirAsia X. Perhaps at that material time Seabury Consulting was around but AJ had PlaneConsult to advice him.
31-4-2012 the expiration of the contract for Shane Nollan as Director Commercial.
It has been more than 2 weeks MyCC has imposed a fine of RM10 million to MAS (on 6-9-2013) and yet AJ, as the Group CEO of MAS chose to be in total silence. THE SILENCE IS GETTING MORE AND MORE DEAFENING BY THE DAY. What the point of having of MAS having a Strategic Communication Department? Surely, Strategic Communication should be advising AJ of his corporate governance and accountability to the nation.
Lets see for how long more AJ could remain silence.
Part 4 will be about the chronology of events after the share swap has been unwound by YAB Datuk Seri Najib, the PM. Stay tune for Part 4.
