PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines has reached a "breaking point" in its operations, as it struggles with severe shortages of aircraft and parts, according to a Singapore-based aviation consultant.
Brendan Sobie said many airlines have been facing supply and manpower problems for years, but Malaysia Airlines appears to have been hit the hardest.
"They are not alone. They seem to have been impacted particularly in the last few months more than others,"he said on the business news channel CNBC.
"And they got kind of caught behind and things just escalated and reached this kind of breaking point in the last couple of months where they just ran out of aircraft, ran out of parts."
Sobie said the national carrier’s on-time performance has been consistently poor for the past one to two years, and the recent operational breakdown suggests deeper issues in managing industry challenges.
"All airlines can manage this schedule accordingly, and I think something obviously went wrong here because, you know, not every airline is having the problems Malaysia Airlines has,"he said, adding that it is just a matter of "how you manage this issue".
Last week, it was reported that the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia had reduced the validity of Malaysia Airlines’ air operator certificate from three years to one year following the national carrier’s operational difficulties.
The airline’s parent body, Malaysia Aviation Group, said it was supposed to receive 17 new aircraft this year from manufacturers but only four had been delivered so far.
MAG managing director Izham Ismail attributed operational challenges to global spare parts shortages and delays in engine repairs and overhauls.
MAG also announced that it is cutting flights and routes until December due to recent service disruptions affecting Malaysia Airlines, Firefly, and Amal services.
