Munir leaves MAS with wealth of experience

PETALING JAYA: The departure of Malaysia Airlines (MAS) chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Munir Abdul Majid (pic) from the national carrier last month will signal the loss of a leader with a wealth of knowledge on the airline sector stemming from his seven years with MAS.

Two weeks ago, MAS announced that Munir was to step down from his post as the airline’s chairman and non-executive director on July 31.

He first came onboard MAS in June 2004 as a non-executive director for the national carrier, before he was appointed in July as chairman of the company following the demise of then MAS chairman Tan Sri Azizan Zainul Abidin.
Tan Sri Dr Mohd Munir Abdul Majid

Munir’s contract as non-executive chairman has been renewed thrice since his appointment in 2004, with the first two renewals for a two-year period and the final renewal granting a one-year extension from last August till the end of this month.

In the last decade, MAS has undergone severe turbulence in terms of ownership as well as its financial performance. The airline, which suffered losses for four straight years from financial year ended 1998 and was reportedly saddled with RM9.5bil debt, saw the Government intervene and reclaim ownership over the airline from then chairman Tan Sri Tajudin Ramli in 2000. The Government bought back Tajudin’s 32% stake in MAS for some RM1.8bil.

The airline continued to be in the red over the next several years but returned to the black for the financial year ended March 31 2003 and stayed in that position for the next two years.

In 2005, despite the airline industry enjoying relatively good passenger growth and regional competitors posting profits, MAS slipped back into losses at a whopping RM1.3bil for the nine months from April to December owing to an increase in operating costs and provisions made for receivables and engineering spares.

MAS was in need of a major fix and under Munir’s leadership, the company embarked on its hunt for the right chief to turn around the national carrier.

This resulted in the appointment of managing director Datuk Seri Idris Jala in late 2005, who swiftly implemented the airline’s Business Turnaround Plan (BTP) that essentially raised cash for the airline through the sale of properties, trimmed MAS’ operating expenses and returned the airline to profitability by the end of 2006.

Without the BTP, MAS was said to likely fail and run out of cash by April 2006, reporting a RM1.7bil loss for 2006. Having averted a crisis, MAS continued to grow its profits and in 2007, launched its own low cost carrier (LCC) Firefly, to take on LCC incumbent AirAsia.

Munir, who has been with MAS for seven years, has accumulated a wealth of experience in dealing with aviation-related issues and was instrumental in ironing out the on-going battles between MAS and AirAsia, from disputes over flights for domestic routes to the liberalisation of air rights for international routes.

Before his appointment in MAS, Munir was best known in the corporate circle as the first and founding chairman of the Securities Commission, a position he held from 2000 until 2004.

A London School of Economics (LSE) graduate and having earned a LSE doctorate degree, Munir had also been a journalist who rose to become group news editor at the New Straits Times before leaving the organisation in 1993. Munir is also chairman of Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd and has held directorships at Telekom Malaysia Bhd and Celcom Malaysia Bhd.