Senior GM Francis quits MAS after 6 years

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia Airlines (MAS) senior general manager (sales and marketing) Datuk Bernard Francis has called it quits about five months ahead of the expiry of his contract.

Francis, who had been at the carrier for nearly six years, handed in his resignation letter on July 3, and on July 5 MAS managing director Tengku Datuk Azmil Zahruddin, who is also now the commercial director, sent an e-mail to the management team informing them about Francis' departure and that a restructuring was on the cards.

Azmil's letter did not explain why Francis quit and he also did not offer a reason. However, Francis did say that “the months ahead will give me enough time to look at new opportunities. For now I want to take a short break.”

Asked if he had to pay the company for giving the 24-hour notice, Francis said: “We are working out an amicable solution.''

Due to his departure, and as part of the restructuring, all the regional senior vice presidents, who were relocated to the Subang office, will now report to the commercial director.

Other than the six, there is speculation that the head of MASKargo and Enrich may be re-designated to take on a bigger role following Francis' departure, but this could not be verified at press time.

The move to bring back the six regional heads was “done to ensure better coordination and cooperation among sales, revenue management, network and distribution.'' However, it is too early to see the impact of this on MAS bottomline.

In a recent interview with StarBiz, Francis said the airline had recorded 18% and 10% higher international and domestic pre-loads respectively for the second half of this year compared with the same period in 2010.

He had also been instrumental in changing the way the front end of the cabin was marketed and that in a short time span he managed to bring in the results by hitting 23% against the 25% target set for revenue contribution for the year. The 25% target would translate to MAS earning RM650mil in revenue from the front end.

Francis joined MAS in December 2005 as executive vice president of network & revenue management from rival AirAsia Bhd after being cajoled by the then-MD of MAS, Datuk Seri Idris Jala.

As head of network and revenue management, Francis had instituted the dynamics of pricing management and precise inventory management practices that led to the highest yield and operating profit ever achieved in the 40 years of history of MAS in the year 2007.

He also played a big role in the rationalisation and optimisation of the international and domestic route networks to provide the optimum aircraft utilisation and the highest return on asset.

In November 2008 Francis took on a new post as executive vice president of global sales and marketing to bring in revenue management and pricing capabilities to transform MAS sales organisation. He was also the regional manager for Malaysia/Asean.

As the EVP of global sales and marketing, he had lead the sales team in the most difficult times of the aviation history where the industry was plagued with many challenges.

With the changes he instituted the airline in 2009 and 2010 achieved its highest seat factor in the last 10 years and it also managed to achieve operational profit despite challenging times.

In the last two years, he made more than 50 changes by rotating, removing and bringing in the right people for the right job in the sales organisation and in 2011 MAS should achieve the highest seat factor ever in the history of the company.

At AirAsia he was one of the founding team members and responsible for strategic and commercial planning to restructure the company's revenue and cashflow management, debt restructuring, overall business profitability and viability options, pricing and routes, sourcing and setting up of a new reservation system that best suited the low-fare airline's distribution platform.