MAS axes routes and Sulaiman

TROUBLED Malaysian Airlines (MAS) is making significant changes to its network, increasing operations to Asian and US destinations while slashing European and Middle Eastern ones.

MAS will increase services from Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) to Bangkok (Thailand), Beijing (China), Los Angeles (US), Manila (Philippines), Medan and Jakarta (Indonesia), Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Taipei (Taiwan). Most changes will start 25 March.

MAS announced in December that it is cutting Buenos Aires (Argentina), Cape Town and Johannesburg (South Africa), Damman (Saudi Arabia); Dubai (UAE), Karachi (Pakistan), Rome (Italy) and Surabaya (Indonesia).

The airline has been suffering from falling traffic numbers and has gone through a large-scale restructuring and management shuffle. MAS’s new chief executive officer, Ahmad Jauhari, said several senior executives had left the carrier “to pursue other career opportunities”. Notably, that includes Shahari Sulaiman (pictured), head of MASkargo, which is odd as the subsidiary was always touted by the airline as being consistently profitable…