After Malaysia Airlines’ recent announcement that it would discontinue its passenger flights to Frankfurt effective 29 May, the airline’s cargo arm, MASKargo, has also decided to discontinue its three times a week freighter flights to Frankfurt from 31 May.
With the cancellation of the Frankfurt flights, the cargo carrier plans to add two freighter flights to Amsterdam, thus increasing the total number of cargo flights a week to Amsterdam to five from 31 May.
Keesjan de Vries, the regional cargo manager in Amsterdam, said in an interview with Bernama at the Transport/Logistics 2015 Fair held in Munich, said: “MAS operates a daily passenger flight to Amsterdam which also carries belly-hold cargo. The total cargo capacity to Amsterdam presently is around 370 tonnes a week, transported both on passenger planes and freighters. With the addition of the two freighter flights a week, the tonnage is expected to increase from 370 to roughly 570 tonnes a week.”
Meanwhile, MAS has described as “premature’’ speculation it is selling its A380s and freighters as it attempts to repair its ravaged balance sheet. MAS’ comments follow a report by US-based Leeham News that the carrier was offering for sale or l
ease all six of its A380s and four B777-200ERs along with its freighter fleet of two B747-400Fs and four A330-200Fs as it seeks to restructure.
MAS said in a statement this week that former Lufthansa boss Christoph Mueller, who took over leadership of the airline group on 1 May, was focusing on driving the design and implementation of a business plan to move the national carrier to sustainable profitability.
Mueller said he was exploring fleet options to enhance the viability of long-haul operations, but added that “recent speculations on the airline offering some of its fleet for sale or lease is too premature when nothing concrete has been achieved”.
“MAS needs to operate and use its fleet at an optimum level besides maximising revenue on the route it flies,’’ Mueller said. “The market needs to give Malaysia Airlines room to explore various options in determining the most viable strategy, he added.
