MALAYSIA Airlines Bhd (MAS) appears to have a head start on its closest rivals AirAsia Group Bhd, AirAsia X Bhd (AAX) and Malindo Airways Sdn Bhd after closing a restructuring deal that sees it emerging with a stronger balance sheet, having eliminated some RM10 billion in debt.
Last week, the UK court approved the national airline’s plan to restructure more than RM15 billion in liabilities, which effectively removes “decades-long legacy issues in its balance sheet”, its parent Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd (MAG) says. The plan includes a RM3.6 billion lifeline from its sole shareholder Khazanah Nasional Bhd to support the carrier’s new five-year business plan, which envisages MAS returning to profitability from 2022.
Some personal information of Enrich members were compromised between March 2010 and June 2019, but MAB said it "has no evidence" that it was misused, media outlets reported.
KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 4): The Lion Group of airlines, which includes Malindo Air, Lion Air, Batik Air, Wings Air, and Thai Lion Air, is understood to have managed to reach an agreement with some of its lessors to restructure their leases after months of bilateral negotiations.
According to a report by global aviation news portal FlightGlobal, there are more than 40 lessors who are exposed to the Indonesian airline group, which involves over 200 aircraft.
This is noted to be considerably larger than the combined number of aircraft involved in the restructuring of three major Asian flag carriers Thai Airways, Malaysia Airlines and Philippine Airlines.
By Cirium2021-02-03T01:53:00+00:00
Several lessors to Lion Group airlines have agreed to restructure their leases after months of bilateral negotiations, Cirium understands.
“We have reached our agreement and money has started flowing again in December and we are expecting money… for January,” one of those lessors tells Cirium.
Source: Greg Waldron/FlightGlobal
A Lion Air 737-900ER
Given the private nature of the negotiations, it is not clear exactly how many lessors have arrived at agreements, but four with exposure to Lion tell Cirium they heard that multiple lessors had done so. One puts the number at about a dozen or more.
TWO years ago, the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM) thrust Malaysia into the global spotlight, but for the wrong reasons after the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded the technical regulator for failing to meet International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) safety standards.
The downgrade to Category 2 marked a first for Malaysia’s aviation safety regulator since it was assigned a Category 1 rating in 2003.
It also served as a wake-up call for the government as CAAM is an agency under the Ministry of Transport (MoT). Malaysia joined countries such as Thailand, Bangladesh, Curaçao, Costa Rica and Ghana that were placed under Category 2 a rating that indicates deficiency in one or more areas, including technical expertise, trained personnel, record-keeping and/or inspection procedures.