Malaysia Airlines in Beijing Capital International Airport, one of the busiest in the world, empty http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/980w/public/2014/03/10/malaysia_airline-epa-net.jpg?itok=2l6N8_SN
Two unthinkable disasters have befallen Malaysia Airlines that are still fresh in the memory of fliers. One, flight MH370 lost in the sea. Two, flight MH17 shot down over Ukraine by rebels. Flights have been lifting off with empty seats, despite recent price cuts. In China, fliers have completely deserted the airline with the loss of flight MH370, which was carrying 152 Chinese citizens. Almost 200 crew members have quit due to fear and stress.
Malaysia Airlines has cut 6,000 jobs to repair the airline’s profitability, which was already reporting losses before the two tragedies. The airline will be run by the state, and a new Chief Executive will be appointed to lead the company. All in the effort to restructure the airline.
At this point, all Malaysia Airlines can do is attempt to salvage its reputation or rebrand. With disasters fresh in the minds of potential fliers, customers shy away from Malaysia Airlines despite cheap fares and relative safety of airplanes. Mohshin Aziz, an aviation analyst at Maybank Investment Bank puts the daily losses at about $1.7 million a day, which is unsustainable for the airline. For Malaysia Airlines to even attempt to recover, first they are going to have to cut costs.
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/aug/29/malaysia-airlines-cuts-6000-jobs
http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2014/07/23/334062483/after-two-disasters-can-malaysia-airlines-still-attract-passengers
Malaysian Airline could not go back to where they were! A plane went disappeared, and followed by another one going unknown. The reputation of Malaysian airline could not be revived unless it changed to a completely different style of airline company, for example, Tiger budget airline. However, the name of Malaysian Airline has already stayed on consumers’ mind, being an unsafe airline option. Therefore, the more probable solution of Malaysian Airline to survive in this market is to change its brand name. Hopefully, in long run, Malaysian Airline will recover from all the unfortunate losses in stock markets, consumers, planes and flight attendants etc.