By Chan Quan Min
Aer Lingus CEO Christoph Mueller has been appointed the CEO-designate of the new Malaysia Airlines and will lead the airline through the most daring rescue plan for the loss-making carrier yet.
Mueller is joining Malaysia Airlines from Ireland’s Aer Lingus where he has been credited with turning around the once uncompetitive airline by deep cost-cutting and union negotiations. He steps down as Aer Lingus CEO on May 1, 2015 but discussion are ongoing to get him in earlier although it can be no earlier than Mar 1, said Khazanah.
Officially, Mueller is the CEO-designate of the new MAS, Malaysia Airlines Bhd, and will also be appointed to the board of directors of the old MAS as a non-executive director of Malaysian Airline System Bhd.
Christoph Mueller
New MAS will take over from old MAS in mid-2015 leaving behind about 30% or 6,000 staff and unfair contracts with suppliers.
Today’s announcement comes as Khazanah, the state investment fund and owner of Malaysia Airlines, makes a raft of appointments for New MAS.
Mohammed Shazalli Ramly, the CEO of Celcom Axiata Bhd will be nominated to the board of directors of New MAS.
Bashir Ahmad Abdul Majid, former managing director of Malaysia Airports Holdings, will be appointed chairman of the Corporate Reskilling Centre to be set up to retrain redundant staff.
The new CEO, Muller, will be the first non-Malaysian to lead the national carrier.
Mueller’s experience could come at a hefty price tag for Khazanah, assuming he does not take a pay cut. His salary, including benefits, was 1.5 million euros (RM6.45 million) in 2013.
He will bring over 25 years of experience in aviation, tourism and logistics to Malaysia Airlines.
At Aer Lingus over the last four-and-half years, Mueller turned around a national airline savaged by one of the largest and most successful low-cost carriers in the world, Ryanair.
Mueller started his first few months at Aer Lingus making deep cuts to its route network.
“We addressed the cost issues right away… The first months (at Aer Lingus) were a bit like a patient in the emergency room. We were losing a lot of cash. Without immediate action, we would have a serious problem,” he told FlightGlobal in an interview.
After resuscitating the airline, he led the airline into new markets and business models, and successfully repositioned Aer Lingus from primarily a business-to-business model to a business-to- consumer model with a 90% online distribution.
His track record of corporate turnarounds began from his time at Lufthansa, where he was senior vice president for network management and corporate planning, during the airline’s major turnaround between 1994 and 1999.
In 1999, he moved on to Sabena, Belgium’s national carrier, which was part of the Swissair Group, where he was the chief operating officer before becoming CEO of the Sabena Group.
“The appointments announced today are part of efforts by the government and Khazanah to lay strong foundations for the future success of our national carrier.
Najib Abdul Razak
“It is imperative that we have the best available talent with the expertise and experience to help drive the progress of the restructuring effort further forward, lead the airline to profitability, and groom a Malaysian successor to assume the leadership of the airline in the future,” said Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak on the appointments today.
In a statement, Khazanah said the appointments are key initiatives under the 12-point MAS Recovery Plan, which calls for the strengthening of the airline’s leadership as it transitions to New MAS over the coming months to July 1, 2015.
The appointments today came after an “extensive global leadership search from among suitable and available talent, with a rigorous assessment of numerous Malaysian and foreign candidates from within and outside of the aviation industry,” Khazanah’s statement read.
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