The main competitor is SIA Malaysia Airlines CEO: Eyes 2030 to be in the world’s top 10
Malaysia Airlines group chief executive Izzahan Ismail said the company’s main competitor was not a domestic airline but Singapore Airlines.
“We don’t compete with Malaysian carriers, today MA’s competitors are international airlines like Singapore Airlines.”
However, he also admitted that Malaysia Airlines is still not on par with SIA, which was ranked as the world’s best airline winner last year, hence their strategy to set their sights on becoming the best-improved airline by 2025 and squeezing into the top 10 globally by 2030.
It requires a lot of disciplined control, a high level of focus, and investing money where it matters most.
In an interview with English-language radio station BFM, Yizkhan pointed out that 90 percent of MA’s revenues currently come from the international market, so the company has to switch its competitive model.
“Before 2015 to around 2016, 45% of MA’s revenue at that time came mainly from the domestic market and 55% from the international market, when we were competing with low-cost carriers.
But with 90% of our revenue in the last 27 months coming from the international market and only 10% from the domestic market, it is clear that our competitors are no longer domestic airlines.”
He admits that the aviation industry faces huge challenges such as fuel, foreign exchange and geopolitics, with ongoing conflicts further impacting on the macroeconomic level.
“However as a company, you cannot say you can’t do anything about this macroeconomic disadvantage, instead solutions must be found. For example, if there is excess production capacity in the Malaysian domestic and ASEAN markets, the airline has to find a way to solve the problem.
He said Malaysia Airlines has not been able to reinvest in the past 20 years, but he is still confident in the strategy that the company has developed.
Aviation consultancy Skytrax last year published its “2023 World’s Best Airlines” ranking, with the top five being Singapore Airlines, Qatar Airways, All Nippon Airways, Emirates and Japan Airlines in that order.
