Malaysia Airlines: Strengths, Weaknesses, and Recommendations Report

This report provides a detailed analysis of Malaysia Airlines within the context of the global airline industry. It begins with an introduction to the industry's growth and the selection of Malaysia Airlines as a case study. The report highlights the company's operational reach across various countries and its global destinations as key strengths, along with its focus on customer service and in-flight experience, including Malaysian cuisine and the MH assistant app. However, the report also acknowledges criticisms faced by Malaysia Airlines, such as the devaluation of its frequent flyer program and technical issues. The report concludes with recommendations for improvement, including strategies to enhance customer loyalty, improve the frequent flyer program, foster a positive employee environment, and adopt an open-door policy for specific customer groups. The analysis emphasizes the need for Malaysia Airlines to strengthen its customer base through effective marketing and communication strategies.

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Malaysian Airlines
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................2
2. Malaysia Airlines.....................................................................................................................2
2.1 Malaysia Airlines excels first aspect......................................................................................3
2.2 Malaysia Airlines excels second aspect.................................................................................3
2.3 Criticism faced by Malaysia Airlines.....................................................................................4
3. Recommendations and Conclusion..........................................................................................4
4. References................................................................................................................................6

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1. Introduction
Airlines industry is selected to complete this report because it is currently the fastest growing
industry at the global level. “According to statistics from ICAO, the airline industry has seen
dramatic growth over the past 20 years, the number of passengers is rising as in 1998 number of
passengers was 1.467 billion and in 2017 number of passengers increased to3.979 billion”.
Furthermore, as per the report of the International Air Transport Association, the number of
passengers in the airline segment will be doubled by the end of 2036 and will reach to 8.2 billion
(ICAO, 2017).
This report is based on the airline industry and in that Malaysia airline is chosen. Further, the
report highlights the areas where company excels in the industry and the reasons of criticism if
any faced by the company in the airline industry are explained and then accordingly
recommendation is given to improve the performance of company in the industry.
2. Malaysia Airlines
Malaysian Airlines was founded in 1947 as Malayan Airways and headquartered at Kuala
Lumpur. The company operates flights in Africa, Australia, Europe, America and Asia regions.
The company has its two own subsidiaries that are MA Swings and Firefly. Malaysian airlines
loss was increased in the year 2018 by 85% that showed that airline is not able to compete in the
market as company reported a loss of RM812.11 million in 2017 and lost RM2.35 billion in two
years. The reasons for its failure and poor performance was cut throat competition in airline
industry, volatility in fuel prices and oversupply of capacity and fluctuation in foreign exchange
rates. The company laid off its employees because of inefficiency in the operations and the
losses the company incurred in the last 13 years. Malaysia Airlines shed overall 12,000
employees in two phases firstly 6000 employees in 2006 and under the Business Turnaround
Plan 2 shed another 6,000 in 2015 under the MRP (MalaysiaAirlines, 2019). In 2017, “it has a
13,000-strong workforce, which some still consider bloated given its smaller network”.
Malaysia airline is facing lots of problems that are described below and the areas where company
excels or have competitive advantage over their competitors are described below.

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2.1 One aspect the company excels
One of the strongest areas where Malaysia airlines excel is its reach and operation in various
countries and at global destination s that can serve as an important aspect for the company.
Malaysian airlines operate its flights in America, the Middle East, Europe, Africa, Australia and
Asia. The company covers approximately 60 routes domestically and internationally with the
fleet size of 97 aircraft that can be considered as the unique selling proposition of the company in
order to survive or compete in the market. That indicates that company has strong resources
including aircraft of Boeing and Airbus. Further the company also operates in cargo services and
company launched a charter brand that is separate from other aircraft. The brand presence at the
global level or destinations is one of the areas where company excels and focuses on continuous
improvement in its operations in order to expand its presence in other routes and destinations
also. Malaysian airline is progressing continuously in this aspect that helps the company to get
competitive advantage in this area and lead the company in that direction. Further company is
doing this by focusing on improving its performances in all these regions in which they operate
and also through punctuality and making in flight experience of customers valuable and
memorable (Ahmed, et al., 2017).
2.2 Another aspect the company excels
Other part in which company excels is providing customer services and inflight entertainment to
the customers. This area helps the company to compete in the market or airline industry. The
company more focuses on improving customer experience in the journey by offering various
benefits and products during travelling. In flight experience includes the best experience of
“Malaysian cuisine and revamped golden lounge with a contemporary and luxurious Malaysian
feel and look” (Fayolle, et al., 2018). An application is developed by the company to further
improve the customer experience with the company and that app is called MH assistant, which
helps the customers to get amazing and exciting vouchers. The company excels in providing the
best hospitality experience in airline segment to the customers and this can serve as the area
where the company can attract more customers through its marketing and advertising strategies.
Each passenger gets the best inflight experience and can enjoy the journey by feeling the

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Malaysian culture and uniqueness. So the company excels in this area and because of that can
attract more customers as providing best customer service and experience is a uniqueness that is
provided by the company and makes it different from others in airline industry.
2.3 Criticism faced by Malaysia Airlines
Malaysia Airlines was criticized on a regular basis for devaluing frequent flyer program and for
technical issues in its flights very frequently. FFP is a program that airline segment offers to its
customers in order to retain their loyal customers that helps the customers to redeem their points
in air travel or any in any services provided by the company. It is a kind of loyalty program and
Malaysia airlines devalued the frequent flyer program on regular basis and due to that many
criticisms were received by the company as this leads to disturbance of customer base of
Malaysian airlines and dissatisfaction amongst all its elite customers and loyal customers
(DeBoer, 2018). Another aspect due to that company faced criticism was technical issues
beyond the average amount and this led to serious problems on image or reputation of brand. In
past years three technical faults were found in its flights that led to serious concern about the
safety of customers in flights operated by the company and this criticism seriously affected the
image of Malaysian airlines in the airline industry in a negative way (Ping, et al., 2019).
3. Conclusion & Recommendations
Malaysia Airlines is a company that faced many challenges and phases in the airline industry to
operate efficiently. The company should adopt strategies like firstly, some initiatives should be
taken to increase customer loyalty so that most customers can be retained and use the services of
the company again. Further they should try to improve their frequent flyer program in order to
attract more customers. They can create a positive environment for their employees and
encourage them to work beyond their limits and a training program should be developed to train
the employees to make passengers feel friendly while travelling. Malaysia Airlines can adopt an
“open door policy” for business class customers and elite groups. It is concluded that from the
analysis of company that in spite of having resources and opportunities, Malaysia airline is not
doing well because of various loopholes in its strategies and policies. So it is suggested that
Malaysia airlines should focus on creating the stronger customer base by making their customer

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feel more valued and by understanding their needs through using effective marketing tools and
communication channels and by making strategies that support this objective.

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4. References
Ahmed, A., Nasir, N. & Barkat, W., 2017. Operational performance and financial performance
of Malaysia Airlines. Paradigms, 11(1), p. 34.
DeBoer, E. R., 2018. Strategy in Airline loyalty. s.l.:Springer.
Fayolle, A., Jaafar, N. & Ayupp, K., 2018. Impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in
Malaysia airlines: A PLS-SEM approach. Journal of Air Transport, Volume 67, pp. 169-180.
ICAO, 2017. ICAO. [Online]
Available at: https://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/ICAO-monitoring-loss-of-Malaysia-Airlines
[Accessed 27 08 2019].
MalaysiaAirlines, 2019. malaysisairlines. [Online]
Available at: https://www.malaysiaairlines.com/in/en/news-article/2019/malaysia-airlines-offer-
new-product.html
[Accessed 27 08 2019].
Ping, C. Y., Ling, C. Y. & Alnasser, Y. H., 2019. Malaysia Airlines Berhad. International
journal of Tourism and hospitality in Asia Pacific, 2(2), pp. 25-39.