It would take at least three years to overhaul troubled national carrier Malaysia Airlines (MAS), its new chief executive officer Christoph Mueller said.

Mueller told The Star that MAS had highly qualified people for certain functions but they did not have jobs for all of them.

He said as such, MAS plans to outplace one third of its work force as an interim solution with option to take them back one day.

It had been widely reported that the current restructuring exercise would see some 6,000 staff laid off to save on operational cost.

Mueller said he has experienced doing the same thing in his previous job.

“I have done similar things in my last job and that’s how we try to take care not to lose talent. “I did not assume the role just to terminate jobs," he told the daily.

“On the personal side, my biggest worry from a human and a leadership point is that this procedure has the potential to create a two-class society in that we will have winners and losers.

“And that is very regrettable,” he said.

Khazanah Nasional Bhd’s 12 point plan to enable MAS to achieve sustained profitability, will see RM6 billion pumped in over a period of three years, and about a third of its workforce slashed.

The plan, titled “Rebuilding A National Icon – The MAS Recovery Plan”, has four categories which are governance and financial framework, operating business model, leadership and human capital, and regulatory and enabling environment.


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The plan will see Khazanah invest in a Corporate Reskilling Centre to address the reskilling of the appropriate MAS staff who did not migrate to NewCo.

MAS's CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya would continue to lead the old company during the transition period until July 1, 2015.