Aviation commission should not protect Malaysia Airlines, says Umno MP

The proposed aviation commission should not solely favour cash-strapped Malaysia Airlines (MAS) as the national carrier undergoes a massive revamp to turn itself around, said an Umno lawmaker.

Pulai MP Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamed (pic) said the commission, which was proposed by state sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad as an economic regulator under a plan to revive the national airline, should not disrupt the operations of other players in Malaysia's aviation industry.

"I hope the commission is not used solely in favour of MAS to the detriment of other players. The commission must be for the betterment of the aviation industry and for the benefit of the people.

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"The commission should also act in the interest of the nation by improving more routes and connectivity between domestic and international markets to make it accessible for all Malaysians," he told The Malaysian Insider.

Khazanah unveiled a 12-point comprehensive exercise for MAS yesterday to return the airline into profitability, the earliest by 2017.

Under the plan, Khazanah will invest up to RM6 billion on a staggered and conditional basis over three years.

It will also see the setting up of a new company to house the carrier, rationalise routes, renegotiate current contracts, cut 30% of the 20,000-strong workforce and move its operations from Subang to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Nur Jazlan said the plan seemed like a financial rather than business restructuring, with the main aim of cleaning up MAS's balance sheet.

The parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman said there should be more details to address the airline's business restructuring, given that MAS is facing intense competition not only from global airlines but from other domestic players as well.

"How is MAS going to compete with other premium airlines and low-cost carriers with the Open Skies Policy and a highly-competitive globalised environment?

"MAS is no longer the main player in the domestic market, so how are they going to up their presence to fit into the international network?" he asked.

He pointed out the Asian market is suffering from over capacity and competition is fierce, and as such there are questions on how MAS can grow given these challenges.

"These are more business issues that needed more clarity," he said, adding that the new management hired to turnaround the carrier must be experienced in restructing airlines as a business.

MAS is to be taken private by Khazanah, which owns over 69% of the carrier.

Earlier in August, it had announced its plan to buy out shares it does not own at 27 sen for each MAS share, amounting to nearly RM1.4 billion, to take the troubled airline private.

A total of RM1.6 billion will be spent on restructuring and retrenchment costs, while RM3 billion will be injected progressively into the new company.

CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya will continue to lead until July 2015 when the new company comes into force, while Khazanah will announce his successor before the end of this year.

If everything goes as planned, MAS will be relisted within three to five years, or between the end of 2017 and 2019, and Khazanah will embark on a sell-down or partial sell down of its stake.

MAS announced its second quarter results yesterday which recorded a net loss of RM307 million, which brings the total loss to RM750 million for the first six months of this year.

The carrier had undergone three restructuring exercises since 2007 which had failed to yield any results due to a bloated workforce, changing market demand, stiff competition and high overhead costs.

MAS troubles was further affected by two major aviation disasters this year.

Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing vanished in March with 239 people on board, while flight MH17 from Amsterdam was shot down over Ukrainian air space on July 17, killing all 298 people on board. – August 30, 2014.

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Malaysian Crew Members 'Afraid To Fly'

Malaysian Airlines has been losing cabin crew at a higher than normal rate recently and the leader of its biggest union says there's no mystery there.

unmanned aerial systems (UAS)

Disney "imagineers" have found some unique uses for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) that could eventually see airborne puppets controlled by drones pulling the strings. 

The Qantas Dispute

The Flying Kangaroo, aka Australian national carrier Qantas, celebrated its 91st birthday last week in mid-November with visits from two high-profile travelers – their ambassador, the actor John Travolta, as well as the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner, in the country for promotional duties.
The events were labeled in one Australian newspaper as a “one-two PR salvo” for the troubled airline, now hard at work in the lead-up to the busy Christmas and New Year holiday period at repairing the damage done to its brand during the recent industrial dispute that led to its entire fleet being grounded.
The move by CEO Alan Joyce on October 29 to cancel all flights with immediate effect left more than 70,000 passengers (108 planes at 22 airports) stranded, or up the creek without a paddle, as some Australians might say.
Speaking on November 14 at the unveiling of theDreamliner, the “plane of the future” which Qantas has ordered 50 of, Joyce had been hopeful that the airline would reach agreements over new collective contracts with unions representing long-haul pilots, aircraft engineers and ground crew by the deadline of Monday November 21.
But on the day, negotiations between the airline and two unions representing ground crew and long-haul pilots collapsed. This leaves the sides to face binding arbitration before Australia’s industrial relations umpire, Fair Work Australia, who called a halt to the grounding on October 29.  The Transport Workers Union, who represents baggage handlers, ended talks with Qantas just after discussions with the long-haul pilots’ union broke down.
The two parties could not reach agreement on job-security demands, including the number of contractors Qantas wanted to use, said the TWU’s legal representative Michael Burns. A three-week negotiation extension had been a possibility, but both Qantas and the union had to be in agreement. The matters in dispute will now go to binding arbitration, however the pilots’ union and the TWU will discuss with Qantas negotiators those areas on which agreement is more likely.
Joyce reiterated that although the arbitration process could last months, there could be no industrial action during this time. Any union that attempts this faces big fines.

Tension
The TWU however is deciding this Thursday whether to take legal action to win back the right to strike.
These events aren’t a surprise.
Even at a rally held outside the Australian high commission in London tensions were running high, with a union official in a Joyce costume threatening two people dressed in kangaroo outfits with a fake knife.
The TWU insisted then that Qantas had no interest in cutting a deal with unions and was looking for arbitration ending.
“Qantas are just not interested in reaching any sort of agreement at all,” said national president Jim McGiveron.
The airline is also in dispute with the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA), and the Australian and International Pilots Association, since it announced in August a plan to restructure its operations and outsource some of the services. They’re concerned about Qantas’ moves to cut costs and set up new Asia-based airlines.
Richard Woodward, the vice-president of the Australian and International Pilots Association, said negotiations between Qantas and the pilots’ union had finished after the two sides failed to agree over the terms for efficiency gains of up to 20% sought by the company, for example pilot rostering.
He said that the union was “very disappointed”, adding that Qantas had taken a “very hard-headed attitude to negotiations and have not compromised”.
The binding arbitration would drag on for months because of the “complex nature of the contract”, Woodward warned.
Qantas, who claims the long-running dispute was costing them $15 million per week due to flight delays and cancellations, was due to begin talks with the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.
The country’s newspaper The Age warned during the industrial action that Aussies would be “understanding” if the affair turned out to be a “nasty dispute that didn’t last too long”.
“They will be unforgiving if their treasured national carrier suffers a long-running and debilitating loss of income and reputation,” an editorial said.
The strike, which came amid the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Perth and made international headlines, lasted 48 hours.
Some analysts are warning now it could take years for Qantas to win back customers who have shunned the carrier.

Watershed
The move to ground flights was described as a “watershed decision in Australia’s industrial history” by The Sydney Morning Herald.
“I think Qantas will have to tread very carefully – not just in the coming months but in the coming years – to regain lost ground in terms of its reputation,” said Tim Heberden from consultancy firm Brand Finance.
“Qantas has faced a number of negative headlines in the last few years and should evaluate the cumulative effect of reputational risk when considering future actions and statements.”
A poll has showed an alarming 60% of Australian voters are unimpressed with the airline over the bitter industrial dispute. Nearly half (42%) have blamed Qantas management for the grounding. The already unpopular Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who ordered the workplace mediator, doesn’t fare well either. Nearly half of voters (46%) disapprove of the way she handled the affair.
Qantas, famously mentioned in the film Rain Man by Dustin Hoffman as never having crashed (not completely true, they’ve never had a major crash) was working overtime to assure customers their Christmas flights would be safe, on Twitter.
“We’re just informing customers there’s no more industrial uncertainty & we are back on schedule,”@QantasAirways told@gusworldau.
Some customers were still doubtful.
“The little asterisks on these Qantas flights should say *unless otherwise grounded by Qantas board of directors,” wrote @LeevanNetten. @kanani81 had pleaded with them, “Dear Qantas – just booked my Christmas flights with you. Please don’t strike again. Also – double frequent flyer points would be awesome”.
They appear to have listened on the frequent flyer front. On November 16 Qantas, which has 65% of the domestic Australian market,announced new moves targeting its frequent flyer programme members as a way of saying sorry for the grounding of its fleet.
They will increase the frequent flyer points earned for passengers travelling, but only for a few weeks, and only platinum and platinum one members will receive double points. Silver and selected bronze frequent flyer members will receive only 25% more points, with gold members getting 50% more. The offer, already effective, applies to all eligible Qantas flights until December 23, including flights already booked.
The carrier will also cut fares across their entire network.  Qantas are offering passengers affected by the industrial dispute special promotional deals through one of the biggest national advertising campaigns in their 90-year history, as the busy festive season approaches.
One “goodwill gesture” to win back those directly affected by the industrial dispute though is offering them free flights to any domestic or New Zealand destination.
The airline says the free return economy flight being offered to more than 70,000 passengers affected by the grounding is completely separate to its compensation packages or any other payments. The International Pilots Association has branded the free flight sweetener a waste of money.

Happy
Some passengers are happy with the attempts by Qantas to woo them back. “thanks @QantasAirways for the double points and the free epicure membership!” said @owenbrandt. Even the smallest things seemed to please some. “I flew QF 41 last nite and enjoyed your new menu! Love the Mango bar )” Tweeted @witakwintika.
According to the Australian Financial Review, much of the country’s “high-yielding corporate market” has already defected to Qantas’ rival Virgin Australia since industrial action against the Flying Kangaroo increased in August.
On the day of the grounding Virgin announced it was offering special “Stranded Passenger” recovery fares for Qantas passengers who were at a port away from home and held a Qantas ticket to return home initially within the following five days.
Virgin said it was also in discussions with “alliance partners to add extra capacity into the market as soon as possible”.
“Expect to see some creative strategies by Virgin Australia to take advantage of the situation and assist them to increase their market share,” said Deborah Edwards, senior research fellow from University of Technology Sydney.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see emerging tactics such as a points-for-points deal offered by other airlines to take advantage of the dissatisfaction that customers will have with Qantas.”
It’s not just Aussies who feel frustrated about Qantas’ future. Trade unionists in Argentina, Chile, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand and the USA showed their support for Qantas workers.

Watching
“In Britain the Unite Union is watching very carefully because Willie Walsh [the head of British Airlines’ parent company] is looking . . . for ways to downgrade and outsource services,” said David Cockroft, the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) general secretary.
“If Qantas gets away with setting up low-cost, low-quality, offshore airlines of inconvenience then lots of other airlines would quickly do the same thing.”
The TWU has warned overseas unions may target Qantas and Jetstar.
Internationally, Qantas’ airline ranking has slipped. In 2005 they were second. Last year they were seventh. This year they’re eighth. Although it’s worth $1.1 billion, the Qantas brand was in 13th position on Brand Finance’s table of Australia’s most valuable brands at the start of this year, the biggest loser of brand value since 2008. Rankings aren’t the only thing going downhill. This year Qantas shares have lost nearly a third of their value.
In mid-November they were up 7.6% to their highest in more than three months.
Days after Qantas flights were back in the skies, The Sydney Morning Herald ran a flight asking its readers “Do we really need Qantas?”
The paper finished by alluding to US singer-songwriter Frank Zappa, who once said that to be a real country, you need “a beer and an airline”.
“One out of two wouldn’t be so bad,” the Herald concluded.
Aussies are very fond of a drink. Indeed at the height of the “national crisis” one stuck passenger, Adam Cottrell from Western Australia (WA), remarked that although Qantas had put him up in a hotel and the hospitality wasn’t too bad, he was looking forward to arriving home to some “cold beers”.
The world’s second oldest airline will have to fight very hard to ensure its surviva.

By AMY FALLON

LADY PILOT INTERVIEW

What are your full names?

Elizabeth Wanjiku Nderi. I have been a professional pilot for 3 years.

What initiated your interest in flying?

I have always been fascinated by planes and travelling to different places. When I was young, I really looked forward to trips to the airport because I loved watching planes taking off and landing. I learnt how to fly before I learnt how to drive and I always wanted to work in a dynamic field.

Which schools did you attend?

I went to Forest view academy in primary which was a really good school then I went to Precious blood secondary school. After that, I obtained a PPL (private pilots license) from CMC then went to USIU for a business degree (marketing and finance) and graduated with honors.

How did school influence your decision to be a pilot?

I was taught in primary that I could be whoever I wanted to be. I knew I could be anything. Their emphasis was on education and the pursuit of excellence. I realized that I have to do my best and that is what gave me all the opportunities I have now. Since I wanted to be a pilot, I pursued that.

Where did you train to become a professional pilot?

I got my PPL from CMC then went to 43rd air school in South Africa for a CPL license and everything else.

Was the training difficult? What challenges did you face and what did you like about it? Was it more difficult as a girl?

The challenges in flying school came from being educated, black and a girl. Some instructors felt that people who pursued flying as their only education made better pilots. It also was not easy there because I am black and sometimes, this would cause discomfort. I think the training was challenging for everyone not more so just for girls. I liked the training because the school was very organized and the educational material was provided stage by stage. I specifically liked my instructor, Keith Cunningham, who was very professional. In addition to this, the school educated us on the aviation industry in general, dangerous goods and resource management which were important things to be aware about after the training.

How long did it take?

It took me a year then I came back home.

Where and how did you get your first job? Did you like it?

I got a job as an instructor at DAC aviation formerly CMC. It had its challenges but it contributed to my overall experience. I learnt a lot about people and how there are different approaches to flying.

Are you treated differently where you work because you are female?

No, I work with a great company who are very supportive. They are safety oriented and encourage teamwork as professionals and do not focus on gender.

What is your average day like?

My work is based out of Nairobi mostly. I wake up at 5 and I’m at the airport by 6. After conducting checks and filling the proper paperwork, I’m airborne by 7 and can cover up to 6 sectors a day (can be in 6 different airports in one day) depending on how busy the day is. The average is four.

On a regular day, I’m Back home by 4 or 5 though on some days there 4 hour flights which are really tiring. It may not sound like much but it is intensive because at each airport, my work involves loading and unloading of passengers and cargo plus the paperwork that comes with preparing for any flight. I work four days a week and by the time I’m done I’m ready to rest.

What makes a good day?

It always feels good to take off into sunny weather and everything runs smoothly and on time. Good days mostly mean good weather.

What do you like most about your job?

I like the challenge of the job because it offers me more experience and it helps me grow. I like flying in different conditions and learning something new daily from mentors and captains. I like the fact that nothing is ever the same.

What do you like about being a pilot?

I like the travel, the sense of freedom I feel when I’m up there. My mind is clear as if I leave all my troubles on the ground. I love the way I feel when I take off heading towards a new destination. I could add that it is a common misconception that pilots earn a lot of money immediately. This is not necessarily true. It takes time to earn that much but for now, what I get paid is just right with regard to what I do.

What is most exciting?

Flying is exciting in itself. I hope it never grows old (laughs). Taking off on a new journey always feels good.

What do you dislike most about the job? What’s difficult?

Sometimes it’s challenging to work off base (far from home). It helps to know what the goal is and to remember to enjoy the flying.

Most pilots find it very hard to get a job without experience and getting experience is difficult in and of itself. The flying community is small so networking is extremely valuable. Some airlines simply do not employ women.

The challenges for many female pilots is finding a good man and starting a family. I deal with this by talking to my mentors (both male and female pilots with years of experience for guidance) and I have fellow female pilot with whom I share my experiences so that we grow together.
What about your colleagues, rules, pre flight procedures, family life? Does being a lady pilot interfere with your social life?

My Mum has been very supportive, she has never doubted me. I also have a very supportive brother and sisters. They all learnt aviation terms so that they could understand me. My family has given me a lot of financial and emotional support. I’m so thankful for them and how they have always been and are still there.
I have not been anything but a female pilot so this is all I know. Flying procedures involve a lot of rules and paperwork but its part of the job. My social life has its challenges but every career has its cons.

What are your long-term hopes and plans? Marriage, kids, retirement? Another career?

I would love to fly and grow in this career for as long as I can. I would like to make a change in the industry in my own little way. I would like to do my part in growing the Kenyan industry.

With regard to marriage and a family, I hope and pray that one day in the future all this happens but I have no plans for certain. If I had it my way I would fly to the end, I don’t want to retire.

What would you say to a young schoolgirl who wants to follow in your footsteps?

I would tell them that they need to be dedicated, hardworking and mentally prepared. I would say that it pays to be patient and good grades to get some opportunities. It works out eventually, but it’s a journey. It’s more about the work than the gender. I look forward to more female colleagues in the industry. Anything that is worth it takes time and dedication.

Madinah ranked among top investment destinations

Madinah Gov. Prince Faisal bin Salman said Madinah is an investment-friendly province, the investment competitiveness of which has been stressed by international indices. 
The prince made the comment while receiving Chairman of the Madinah Chamber of Commerce and Industry Muhammed Al-Khatrawi and Chairman of the chamber’s Youth Business Committee Wael Al-Oufi at his office on Tuesday.
The two chamber officials briefed the prince on the efforts of the committee to support young businessmen and women and their small enterprises besides the initiative to convene a forum of young businessmen and women in Madinah. 
The prince noted that Madinah has been ranked among the top investment competitive cities in the world. He spoke about a number of projects to be launched with the aim of boosting the investment environment and creating more employment opportunities in the province.
He called on young men and women in business to translate their new ideas into viable projects.
The chamber officials lauded the prince for his support and encouragement for the activities of the young business people and thanked for his acceptance of the honorary chair of the Youth Business Council, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Disasters spark Malaysia Airlines resignations

Nearly 200 cabin crew have resigned from Malaysia Airlines following the two deadly tragedies which have hit the carrier this year, it said Tuesday, and some reportedly cited fears for their safety.

The flag carrier, which prior to this year had a good safety record, has been in the spotlight in the past six months following the disappearance of flight MH370 on March 8 and the shooting down of MH17 on July 17 over rebel-held eastern Ukraine.

The airline said 186 crew had left in the first seven months of this year, with many blaming family pressure prompted by the tragedies.

"Following the MH17 incident, there was a spike in crew resignations but the number has now decreased to acceptable and routinely expected levels," it said in a statement

"Many cited 'family pressure' as the reason for their resignation due to the MH17 and MH370 tragedies."

Abdul Malek Ariff, secretary-general of the employees union, said some "are now are afraid to fly".

Abdul Malek, quoted by the Edge Financial daily Monday, also said crew shortages were forcing staff to work up to 12 hours a day.

The union represents about 8,000 of Malaysia Airlines' 19,500-strong workforce.

The carrier said it was providing emotional and psychological support to its staff.

The two aviation tragedies killed 537 people including 27 crew members.

Flight MH370 disappeared mysteriously in March en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. No trace has been found despite an intensive search in the southern Indian Ocean.

The airline was widely criticised for its handling of the crisis.

On July 17 MH17 was shot down over war-torn eastern Ukraine, with another 298 people killed.

The ailing airline is in the midst of being taken private by sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional as part of an expected major overhaul.

Khazanah is expected this week to announce a series of restructuring measures including job cuts and axing of unprofitable international routes.

The carrier has struggled amid intense competition, losing $1.3 billion over the past three years even before the two disasters.

For this year's first quarter the airline posted a net loss of 443 million ringgit ($137 million) citing MH370's impact on bookings.

It was the fifth straight quarterly loss.