Why the hate against MAS-AirAsia deal? Why the hate against MAS-AirAsia deal?

The 'noises' evidently have unsettled the MAS board and management, with its soft-spoken chairman coming out in defence of the ongoing efforts by the airline to pull itself out of the rut.


Lately the share swap issue between Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia has been in the news again. Those who are against it - the unions in particular - are again arguing that last August's share swap is a bad idea and want to see it unravelled.

A particular news blog, quoting sources, of course, even suggested that the government was mulling the setting up a special entity to take over the shares of Malaysia Airlines as part of the unravelling process.

The "noises" evidently have unsettled the Malaysia Airlines board and management.

MAS' soft-spoken chairman, Tan Sri Md Nor Yusof, had to come out with a statement last Friday in defence of the ongoing efforts by the airline to pull itself out of the present rut.

Why wouldn't he? A day had not passed last week that one would not read comments in newspapers or blogs ridiculing the share swap and MAS management.

The chairman's overriding message is that the airline's management must be given a chance to put into full operation its business turnaround plan.

This, of course, is easier said than done. In this day and age, opinions are a dime a dozen in the cyber world.

This is not to say opinions should not be welcomed, as free speech advocates would argue that liberty is best secured by a system that protect utterances.

But opinions have to be fair and this means the views expressed must honestly be based on facts that are known.

Let's look at what is known.

Some of the Malaysia Airlines unions want the share swap unravelled. They even reportedly have made known this view to the prime minister and threatened to bring the issue to Parliament.

What is the basis of this demand? Obviously, it is not an industrial issue. If it indeed is one, the unions should have gone to see the human resources minister instead and not the prime minister.

It is basically a preferential issue. The unions prefer not to have substantial owners of AirAsia as part owner of Malaysia Airlines.

Recent turnaround figures indicate that the employees are as motivated and committed as ever. Some 90 per cent of the time and, in some days 100 per cent of the time, MAS employees have turned around the aircraft on time.

This is not an easy feat, considering that turning around an aircaft involves some 60 processes. This statistics alone may suggest that MAS employees generally are not overly disturbed by the share swap issue that are bugging their union leaders.

If it is not at the urging of the employees, why the noises anyway?

Whatever the intent of the union leaders, if they are successful in undoing the share swap, some parties, including those that the unions want to see the back of, may profit from the exercise.

If they are forced to sell the MAS shares they are holding, obviously they won't sell at below cost.

Furthermore, for all the trouble of undoing the swap, they may also agree to continue with the much maligned Comprehesive Collaboration Framework (CCF) between Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia and AirAsiaX.

In the end, the union leaders will not even have their bragging right and worst still, all the unnecessary unravelling cost will be borne by the tax payers.