keep bailing MAS? How much have we spent...
RM26bn!!! If you take from year 2000, that is
more than RM1bn a year to keep this thing afloat.
We see a figure like RM26bn and it does not
make much impact because we have no frame of
reference. What is RM26bn?
Let's say the 1MDB, which was a financial crime
and CBT, cost us Malaysians RM5bn. Then MAS
would have meant going through about 5x 1MDB
disaster. To be fair, MAS is a business and while
the comparison is not entirely apples vs apples,
there is still some painful truth in comparing it to
1MDB.
a) There is no shame in not having a national
airline but there is a lot of shame and fiscal
irresponsibility when we keep losing more than
RM1bn a year for the past 20 years.
b) It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that
MAS is almost unfixable owing to the: i) the union
and their contracts (back in 2015 20,000
employees were terminated and 14,000 rehired,
were the terms too generous our is it the culture
which still infects the company?); ii) the legacy of
bloated supply contracts and the greedy
gatekeepers and their leakages; iii) the
overcrowding for short haul flights; iv) having
depleted so many international routes, MAS is
having difficulty branding itself properly other than
a codeshare specialist.
Since we are going to lose more than RM1bn a
year, just sit down with the unions and supply
chain contractors - declare bankruptcy and
negoatiate to tear up all contracts at a steep
discount or haircut resolution. While I am all for
good unions and employee rights, somewhere
along the way the MAS union has gone past what
is good for the company - be honest.
Value all existing planes and landing rights, come
up with a figure. Sell to AirAsiaX for shares, but
golden share remains with current AirAsiaX
management for 10 years.
Inject into AirAsiaX as that would be more
palatable for Tony and his team. At least the
better margins at AirAsia stays intact. All
domestic routes to be integrated and managed by
AirAsia. We cut out the duplicity and may even be
able to fly more secondary support routes (such
as twice a week Ipoh-Bangkok, Ipoh-KK,etc..).
As for ex-MAS employees, after getting their
severance, those who are interested will need to
re-apply to AirAsiaX to be integrated as AirAsia
employees. This part will be critical because you
don't want an us-them situation camp fight if you
were to absorb all staff automatically from MAS.
Pick and choose those who will conform.
By selling to AirAsiaX, MOF will keep a healthy
stake to hopefully plow back some profits to
compensate for the losses to the people.
Secondly, it would not be 'nice" to sell MAS to a
foreign party, only to see them turnaround the
thing.
20 years and multiple CEOs have shown and
proven that MAS is not fixable because we
"allowed" it to be unmanageable, hence the best
professional will also not be able to do much - its
like asking a chess Grandmaster to play for your
country but he/she can only move your rook two
spots and your bishops once every 10 moves,
etc... it is ridiculous.
Bite the bullet and move on already. Forget about
the votes of the employees and relatives, that's
not the way to manage a country properly.
Posted Yesterday by Salvador Dali
10
MAR
A Way Out For MAS
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