It looks like we could soon see major changes at Malaysia Airlines, with (at least) two very different visions for the future of the airline... Malaysia Airlines has been in financial trouble for quite a while. If we're being honest, their challenges date back to before the disappearance of MH370, but everything that has happened…
Continue reading: Air France-KLM Wants To Buy Malaysia Airlines Stake
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No chance AF acquires MH - AF is in the middle of a big restructuring of its own right now and management lacks the bandwidth or cash generation necessary to babysit another restructuring effort that is in far worse a state (ME3 exposure, AirAsia taking their lunch, relative lack of strategic hub location, all the "restructuring CEOs" have failed to do this already). AF backed out of investing in Virgin Atlantic back in december - why would you take on a restructuring 10x as hard in a market you're not familiar with?
Don't conflate AF as an airline with the AF-KL group which owns AF and KL.
And it was VS that started to back out from the AF-KL investment in them and not the other way aroud. But that's gone quiet.
Ben wrote about it here
https://onemileatatime.com/branson-backtracks-virgin-atlantic-sale/
It would be strange if both Air France-KLM and Japan Airlines join to takeover Malaysia Airlines. If Air France-KLM takes 49%, don't expect Malaysia Airlines to stay with oneworld. Certainly, one might say even if Malaysia Airlines leaves oneworld, it can still do JV with Japan Airlines. Why would Japan Airlines needs to invest 25% just to have a JV?
KLM have a codeshare on all of MH flights to Australia. An optimised MH network & timetable and more codeshares that KLM actively market across Europe would certainly boost bookings and grow revenue for KLM.
Shouldn't the article be tagged Malaysia Airlines? It is a much more important tag than the JAL tag, as the article is completely about MH.
Hopefully this will not materialize for KL/AF. Having worked extensively with Malaysians I know one should keep his fingers off everything government related there. There is no way this is going to succeed.
For that reason the Air Asia proposal makes sense, because upfront they get rid of anything related to the government. And the debt.
Didn't KLM used to have an intra-Asia operation?
This could be interesting because Sky Team lacks a presence in Southeast Asia outside Garuda Indonesia, despite China Eastern in Shanghai.
Presumably, if this happens it is a sign that Philippine Airlines isn't, as rumored, joining Sky Team.
Of course, it would be more logical for Air France, KLM and even Delta to strengthen their relationships with Garuda Indonesia. But then again, Garuda Indonesia has a lot of problems as well. I'm not sure if Malaysia Airlines is in a better or worse position than Garuda Indonesia.
The Air Asia bid is great for them, but doesn't make much sense. If they're buying the business operations, the debt comes with it. It was capital investment to support that business. Otherwise they're just cherry picking the profitable parts for themselves and giving the bad parts to someone else - in this case it's substantial and doesn't make any sense for the government to accept that. They're not there to give money away for private benefit.
Ben, no mention of Malaysia Airlines being OneWorld? This would be a significant shift especially with SkyTeam's Delta recent JV with LATAM.
Why would AF-KLM take on a struggling carrier like MAS for when AF itself is undergoing a restructuring program? I reckon Qatar Airways will eventually take MAS on because they’ll most likely offer the larger stake than JAL or AF-KLM ever could.
I would suggest Japan Airlines and Air Asia could be better flight for abroad.
I don't think giving AirAsia a monopoly is a good idea. But then airlines with bad financials like MH should be left to die.
In that part of the world, government functions differently. It's not about a good deal for the government or not, it is about a good deal for the people in charge or not, aka a big payday.
If the Air France-KLM takeover goes ahead I'd assume that European flights would remain, Paris and Amsterdam could be on the cards in order to allow close cooperation between the airlines. London would also be kept in order to help AF-KLM ally Virgin Atlantic and provide some competition for BA. If AirAsia gets Malaysia Airlines I think they'd keep the London route because they already have the slots at Heathrow and they haven't said anything about ditching Malaysia's A350's meaning they have planes with the legs to make the route work.
MH leaving oneworld and joining skyteam would be most interesting...but I don't see JL in that scenario. Why would they invest in a carrier that ends up in a different alliance?
Unless JL is thinking about joining skyteam themselves...which might not be bad for them as it wouldn't put them into a much different position, essentially exchanging BA for AFKL in the Euro carrier dept., AA for DL in the US carrier dept and CX for KE as intra-asia premium alliance competitor.
Back to the days when JAL reported bankruptcy, DL made a bid to takeover JAL but essentially was beaten by BA/AA. Despite AF being a partner of JL, BA/IB/AY/JL has jv agreements making them more closely tied. Similar to AA/JL jv, so the JL switching to ST is ~0% chance.
MH already had 2 planes that went down… now the flag too??? LOL
In all seriousness, joining AK (and all subsidiaries) vs joining AF/KL should be akin to selling your soul to the devil vs dying a saintly death. Do they want volumes of compartmentalized charges, or would it be all-inclusive/premium services? I’d rather let MH fly into the sunset than to be absorbed by a low-cost carrier.