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MALAYSIA AIRLINES IS set to fire 6,000 staff in a major restructuring of the company, as it struggles to recover from the loss of two jetliners in March and July.
The wholesale redundancies amount to almost one third of the stricken airline’s 20,000-strong workforce, and is more severe than had been expected by industry experts.
Furthermore, a new company is set to be established, that will take over the existing Malaysia Airlines business and its reduced staff.
Khazanah Nasional, the state investment company that owns 69% of Malaysia Airlines, announced the drastic measures today.
The radical overhaul will cost about 6 billion ringgit (€1.4 billion), and the Malaysian government will also buy out the remaining 31% – making the air carrier 100% state-owned.
At a press conference today, Khazanah also announced it had begun looking for a new CEO, to replace Ahmad Jauhari Yahya by the end of this year.
“The combination of measures announced today will enable our national airline to be revived,” said Khazanah managing director Azman Mokhtar.
The new incarnation of Malaysia Airlines is set to be established by July 2015.
The national airline had already been undergoing severe losses for several years before the disappearance of Flight 370 and its 239 passengers and staff in March.
That was followed by the deaths of 298 people when MH17 was shot down by pro-Russian separatists over eastern Ukraine in July.
Second-quarter financial reports released yesterday showed that Malaysia Airlines’ net loss between April and June this year had widened to 307 million ringgit (€74 million), up from 176 million ringgit (€42 million) for the same period in 2013.
Significantly, those figures do not take into account further inevitable losses accruing after the shooting down of Flight MH17, which occurred on 17 July.
The tragedies have scarred the airline’s brand, once associated with high-quality service.
Travelers on recent long-haul flights have posted photos on social media of nearly empty cabins and departure lounges.
The airline says passengers fell 11 percent in July from the year before.
Contains reporting from the Associated Press.
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The health service in this country is in meltdown and the Minister for Health has time to concern himself with this trivial issue? His priorities would appear to be somewhat confused.
It’s related to some extent – passive smoking is just as bad (so the experts say) and clamping down on smoking in public means less passive smokers, which means less people in hospital due to the effects.
But I still think it’s a tactic employed by politicians in this country where they try and do something small to keep the people off their backs while they continue to do nothing about the bigger issues.
Minister for Health what a tool, I’d be more worried about the amount of carbon monoxide and other toxic chemicals released by motor vehicles than someone somking
@Damian, what experts say passive smoking is bad. I would be very interested as there have been no studies done on the effects of passive smoking.
@Doc – Google is handy, if you punch in a few words and hit enter, results will pop up, you should try it some time: http://www.tobacco.org/news/96539.html
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/healthyliving/smokingandtobacco/howdoweknow/tobacco-smoking-and-cancer-the-evidence
@ Damian. I have read these papers and none of them are studies taken specifically on the effects of passive smoke. They are however extrapolations taken from statistical data and from study reviews. Perhaps instead of just googling something you could read and research some facts before patronising someone with nothing more than your own glib opinion.
@Doc – My own glib opinion is that cancer kills, directly related to smoking in a lot of cases. My own glib opinion is that I don’t want to inhale the poison from other people’s cigarettes. My own glib opinion is that the Cancer Research UK might just know a little bit more about this stuff than you. My own glib opinion is that you should have more sense than to be trawling the Journal looking to impart your wonderful knowledge in the hopes of starting a keyboard fight. Wise up.
Yes Damian, they are all your glib opinions. Smoking can cause cancer, so don’t smoke it’s your choice. If you don’t want to breathe in a smokers exhalations, leave the room it’s your choice. As for the articles you quoted, they concluded in the article you quoted that there was NO statistical risk in childhood cancers due to exposure from second hand smoke. Apparently cancer research uk know more about it than you too. As for trying to start a keyboard row, I’ve only been asking questions regarding facts and not my own glib opinion. Why don’t you wise up and get your facts right instead of quoting reports that you haven’t read or understood.
Re: the smoking ban…
When they do the same with alcohol in this country I will see the sense of it!!
I am pretty sure you can’t drink in public parks, also you can’t drink while driving. So the laws are in place already. So you fully behind this now .
I think it is already illegal to drink in public places, I know people still do it but I think it is illegal. I have seen Gardai confiscate alcohol from a group of men in the Phoenix Park. But like everything else in this country, there won’t be the necessary resources to enforce it.
James Reilly,,, I think we have more important things to be getting on with !!!!!
Andrea, it is not illegal to drink in public places, a garda will remove your drink only if you are drunk and deemed to be a danger to yourself or others. It is up to each authority to pass their own by laws regarding drinking in public (ever see a sign in a park saying no drinking) but it is not illegal.
Someone needs to tell Shatter that the whole Island is an open prison.
What a ridiculous suggestion…banning smoking in public places won’t stop it. As a country we are in crisis and this is just smoke and mirrors bullshit! pardon the pun. concentrate on real problems like more ambulance stations, more facilities for sick children, better and cheaper healthcare for all instead of doubling OUR money up against a wall on petty distractive nonsense such as this!
I actually think it would be a good idea, I have brought my children to parks and parades and had people light up directly beside us. Or light up in a queue. It is very unpleasant. Most responsible adults don’t do it but there are those who just don’t care. It is a difficult one and I remember someone posting a comment on a similar story where he mentioned a country (I can’t remember where), where one side of a street was for smokers and one for non smokers. That sounded like a good compromise….
All indoors are no smoking if u don’t like it move yourself.I don’t smoke near kids or parks but I’m sick of people like you moneing all the time. The government have not banned smoking yet so give people who do the right thing a brake
If they’re outside I believe they can smoke where they please (with an obvious exception of queues and such when kids are around), if you don’t like it move on. And this is from an ex-smoker.
@Tommy. I wasn’t “moaning”, I was simply expressing an opinion. All I said was that it is unpleasant when irresponsible people light up in a confined space (like a queue or squashed in a parade) when you have your children with you. It is much easier for that person to move away from the children than to have to move 4 children. You yourself said you don’t light up around children and if you read my comment carefully, you will notice that was my very point…
Why should a person smoking in any outdoor environment move away from children?
Dr. James Reilly can’t even enforce a no smoking policy in our Hospitals.
And where does he propose to raise the lost revenue obtained from tobacco sales?
Waffle waffle waffle.
(Check out the photo of Dr. Reilly on here and tell me: Is this an accurate image of Dr. Reilly as we know him? http://www.dohc.ie/about_us/ministers/ )
It’s a long time since he looked like that.
the minister seems to have lost track of his priorities he would be better employed in making the HSE more
efficient he has more important issues to be concerned with or are these too much to handle
Let people smoke but charge €20 for a pack of 20 and cream in the taxes.
Everyone’s a winner.
is there a smoking area in the Dail James?…….lead by example!!
This has to be another of those things the politicians do so they can point at it and say ‘what a clever little minister I am, look at what I did’ (usually banging on about their ‘achievement’ when people are asking about the many many serious things they have botched or ignored)
Its just P.R. and nothing more
Gotta love the IMF, they take billions off emerging economies and give it to rich economies to squander, genius
The widening of the ban would be good if only to lessen the amounts of filthy disgusting cigarette butts being flicked all over the ground everywhere. When you go to stephens geeen its hard to find a place to sit on the grass in summer without being next to a fag end. Next chewing gum!
Did Dr Reilly get this latest bright idea from his 164 thousand (dollar) man?
Test message.
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