Malaysia Airlines to axe 6,000 staff

Malaysia Airlines is to cut 6,000 employees, including its chief executive, and axe some long-haul routes under a radical restructuring.

The carrier's majority investor Khazanah Nasional, the state investment fund which has taken over the struggling company, said on Friday that it would trim staff by 6,000 to 14,000 as it seeks to stem long-running losses worsened by the two aircraft disasters this year.

"The combination of measures announced today will enable our national airline to be revived," said Azman Mokhtar, head of Khazanah Nasional.

The country’s flagship carrier said on Thursday that financial results would worsen this year following a Rm307m (£59m) net loss in the second quarter. That was almost double the Rm176m loss in the same period last year.

Average weekly bookings slumped 33pc after flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July, killing all 298 people on board. The tragedy came just four months after flight MH370 disappeared on its way to Beijing.

Jamaludin Ibrahim, head of state-controlled telecoms firm Axiata, is one of the front-runners to become the carrier's new chief executive.

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