SEPANG - LONG beset by financial woes, the struggling Malaysia Airlines has run into more turbulence.
Technical problems and employee dissatisfaction have contributed to flight delays over the past weeks, the New Straits Times (NST) reported, resulting in passengers being stranded at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
Hundreds of them were left in the lurch on Sunday, the paper said. Some flights were delayed by up to several hours.
The carrier yesterday issued a media statement to apologise to the affected passengers, and said flight schedules were changed over the past week due to technical issues.
Angry passengers told NST they could not get on their flights because they were overbooked.
At the airport on Sunday, Mr Darren Woon, 25, saw red when he was told his Perth-bound flight was full.
He said an MAS employee had informed him it was overbooked by 50 people.
'I can understand if it's just five people ahead of me, but 50? They didn't even make an effort to contact us. They merely waited for us to turn up, then tell us the bad news.'
But MAS denied there was overbooking, and said the delays were sparked by the grounding of an aircraft in Frankfurt, Germany.
MAS' senior general manager for transition management, Dr Amin Khan, told Bernama yesterday that the situation was a result of a 'snowballing effect' caused by the grounding.
The airline's managing director and chief executive officer, Datuk Idris Jala, told reporters on Saturday the aircraft was grounded due to engine damage.
Dr Amin told Bernama yesterday: 'Because of the aircraft being grounded, we have to revise the schedule.'
He said the situation was expected to be rectified by last night.
The airline said in the statement that it had arranged for an extra flight to Australia and helped passengers arrange for alternative air travel, among other measures.
It said only passengers coming from Europe with connecting flights to Australia were affected by the delays.
But NST said that other flights were also delayed, with an Istanbul-bound flight departing more than three hours late.
On Saturday, Datuk Idris told reporters that besides the aircraft in Frankfurt, at least three other planes were also grounded elsewhere because of technical problems.
This, together with bad weather, have caused a shortage of operational planes, exacerbating the delays.
Staff are also in the process of familiarising themselves with a new passenger services system, which was introduced in line with mandatory international requirements for e-ticketing.
On-time departures had fallen below the airline's usual record of above 80 per cent of flights, the newspaper said on Sunday, quoting a manager of a service unit who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The newspaper also said that the carrier's employees, reportedly unhappy over management issues, are on a 'silent strike'.
It reported that several employees said they were dissatisfied with their performance bonuses and share options.
MAS' latest problems came after it reported a net loss of RM136.4 million (S$59.9 million) for the 2006 financial year.
It underwent a major restructure to cut costs, axing unprofitable routes and signing code-sharing agreements.
The airline laid off 3,000 to 5,000 employees in a voluntary separation scheme and also gave up routes to budget carrier AirAsia.
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'I can understand if it's just five people ahead of me, but 50? They didn't even make an effort to contact us. They merely waited for us to turn up, then tell us the bad news.' PASSENGER DARREN WOON, 25, when told his Perth-bound flight was full
