PETALING JAYA: The Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) acknowledged that a global shortage of parts and intense competition for skilled talent caused its recent service disruptions.
MAG group managing director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail said global shortages due to a lack of resources were delaying the production of spare parts by manufacturers.
"This has led to longer turnaround times for engine overhauls and repairs, including for the MAG fleet, which relies on external partners for these services."
"This has resulted in a lack of engines for our operations," he said in a press release on Thursday (Aug 28).
Izham added that MAG had maintained the quality of its maintenance work through more costly internal and external management.
He noted that the global shortage of parts had also affected the on-time delivery of MAG’s new aircraft orders, which impacted the company’s fleet planning.
"By 2024, MAG was scheduled to receive 17 new aircraft as part of our fleet modernisation programme and to support our growth requirements.
"However, to date, MAG has only received four Boeing 737-8 aircraft out of the 13 contractually agreed by 2024.
"MAG was also scheduled to receive four A330neo aircraft but is now only expected to receive three by the end of the year as committed by Airbus," he said.
Izham said that MAG would work closely with stakeholders, including regulators and original equipment manufacturers (OEM), to address the operational challenges affecting the industry.
He also acknowledged that MAG had experienced attrition of its skilled workforce as new maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry competitors, both local and international, entered local markets.
"To address this, we are collaborating with our partners to augment our manpower and increase our skilled engineering workforce while also improving our remuneration packages to sustain a strong talent pipeline for MAG," he said.
Recognising the frustration among MAG’s customers, Izham assured that MAG would provide affected customers with necessary compensation.
"This will include flight reallocations and full refunds without any penalty charges.
"We also encourage passengers to use the ‘My Booking’ feature on our website for quicker service and to check the status of their flights as our global contact centre is experiencing increased traffic," he added.
This follows a recent increase in technical incidents affecting the national carrier, leading to Malaysia Airlines (MAS) flights turning back and making emergency stops.
On Aug 20, flight MH128 en route to Kuala Lumpur from Melbourne had to make an emergency stop at Alice Springs in Australia’s Northern Territory.
A day later, Shanghai-bound MAS flight MH386 was forced to turn back to KLIA due to cabin pressure issues.
Then on Aug 22, MAS flight MH152 heading to Madinah had to return to KLIA, making it the third such incident in a row for August.
Transport Minister Anthony Loke revealed that 63 out of the 411 skilled workers at MAS’s engineering department had left the company since January of this year, at a press conference on Wednesday (Aug 28).
