Malaysia Airlines Appoints New CEO; Old CEO Quits Effective Immediately

Lucky,

Will you say what some of these other rumors are? I would love to hear them if possible. Thanks!

-PD (@DallasFortWorthSpotter on IG)

I suspect MH has no idea how horrible they look with these recent management changes.

Or they know how horrible they look and simply don't care.

I'm not sure if Malaysia Airlines is capable of change. The corporate culture, supported by the powers of patronage from the highest level of government is resistant to any type of change that seeks to eliminate positions and halt the gravy train. Why anyone, who is not a beneficiary of the system would choose to be CEO is beyond me.

"However, I’ve been hearing some other interesting rumors about reasons he supposedly left, which I can’t personally confirm, but they do fit more in line with an explanation of 'changing personal circumstances.'"

C'mon Lucky. It's BS to just tease some rumor you're hearing. Either fully state the rumor, or if you're not comfortable with that, don't mention it at all.

First trip using MH from Sydney to London and return. All in all a pretty reasonable experience. The FA were great and on A380 and newish 330 so hard product was fine. It's small polishing touches that one gets on say Qantas, my usual carrier, which are missing. If anything the new CEO needs to be looking at these small touches rather than getting into LCC territory.

"My understanding has been that he left because he couldn’t handle the toxic corporate culture at Malaysia Airlines."

My understanding has been that toxic corporate cultures were supposed to be his bread and butter. Apparently Christoph Mueller bit off more than he could chew, which kind of deflates that best of the "crisis CEO's" claim we keep hearing. Smart enough to have another job already lined up but not quite smart enough to actually fix MH before leaving. Wonder how long he'll be with EK.

I use Malaysia quite a bit for BKK-SYD/MEL. It's a good service, stop in KL is not too long. The main attraction is the fare : now as low as B36000 J return ( ie USD 950, AUD 1225), cf Qantas @ 100,000, Thai @90,000. Even the appalling Jetstar is more. More commonly Malaysia is 60-70,000 , but still a significant saving if time is not critical.
Now they earn Skyteam award miles ( but not level miles) and it may be the better use rather than the almost zero for crediting to Qantas .
Going anywhere in Asia ex Bangkok the cheapest fare will be Malaysia via KUL.

Bye bye business class regional flights in MH = bye bye easy tier point runs for BA Gold. 🙁

Anyway, I wish him the best, though it's arguable to say the smartest thing MH did was hire Mueller when he did major layoffs, get rid of 777 fleet, MH losing its 5-star skytrax status, etc. and not even fulfill his contract (nor half the length of his contract.) I'm not even sure if he turned the company around. I recall reading MH getting a lot of business again back in February, but that's probably due to Chinese New Year travel in the region. I wonder how they're doing the past few months.

I wish Mueller the best and am quite surprised he now works for Emirates, since I don't think EK is in a crisis right now, or is it? 😉

I agree with the others --- stop teasing us please! hehe

“My understanding has been that he left because he couldn’t handle the toxic corporate culture at Malaysia Airlines.”

So they bring in a guy who previously was in the C-suite of one of the most toxic LCCs on the planet? Gotcha. Honestly, our travel regulations for work may be getting revised to put Malaysia back on the no fly list.

I would hate to see it happen (largely because so many of the smaller operators in that part of the world already are on the no fly list; less pointedly, it was because of the fact that Malaysia used to be a good choice if you couldn't fly Singapore, etc) but putting someone whose primary background is Ryanair into running an airline in a part of the world that doesn't have the greatest reputation for being up to snuff with regards to pilot training, maintenance and other safety issues just makes me uneasy.

Lucky, you are right on both theories but the second theory had happened to many great and not so great CEOs and many said it came with the glamorous job.
Thus, only left is the first theory which is further augmented by the report here https://mpmsavemab.wordpress.com/2016/07/09/incompetence-breeds-incompetence/

Will communicate further if you are interested.

Lousy CEO. white man is no better than asians. Look at SIA CEO. smart man. This new CEO is doing what any fool on the street can do to make profit which is by cutting cost massively. No different to any street vendors selling banana fritters or nasi lemak. Good CEO makes money by increasing revenue. Thats more difficult. They even save cost on a freaking bun, tea/coffee. If you noticed, there will always be turbulence on MAS flight and they will not serve any hot beverages. lol. Lousy low IQ CEO.