Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), the parent company of Malaysia Airlines, has managed to stay profitable for a second consecutive year despite facing a steep financial downturn. In a move to maintain staff morale, the group has announced performance-based bonuses of up to 2.5 months’ salary for its 13,000 employees. This is way less than last year’s bonus of up to six months, reflecting tighter margins and a challenging year.
The decline follows an 18 per cent drop in flight capacity during the final quarter, resulting in 6,388 cancelled flights and affecting around one million passengers. Disruptions stemmed from supply-chain delays, aircraft-delivery setbacks, maintenance issues, and workforce shortages.
The Group had expected to post a loss for the year. However, an RM426 million reversal of asset impairments from the COVID-19 period provided an unexpected boost, keeping the company in the black. Still, revenue slipped by one per cent to RM13.68 billion, with passenger revenue down by three per cent. Cargo operations helped soften the blow, growing by seven per cent to RM1.51 billion.
Despite a fall in cash reserves to RM3 billion from RM4.3 billion, MAG avoided seeking more funds from its main shareholder. With RM1.3 billion of a RM3.6 billion support package used up so far, the Group is till now operating within its financial limits.
