Malaysia Airlines is due to unveil a complete re-brand next week following huge damage from the disappearance of flight MH370 and flight MH17 which was shot down last year.
Christoph Mueller, who joined from Aer Lingus, taking over as chief executive on May 1, told Reuters that the new company would be like a ‘start-up’.
A new name and livery are on the cards for the airline, sources told Reuters.
"I’m hired to run the new company entirely on commercial terms and there’s very little margin for error," said Mueller. "It’s not a continuation of the old company in a new disguise, everything is new."
Khazanah, the Malaysian state investor which took over MAS, said the chairman of audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia had been appointed to oversee the move of MAS’ assets and liabilities to a new company, Malaysia Airlines Bhd, which is due to start operating by September.
The airline suffered huge damage to its brand after the disappearance of flight MH370 in March last year. It was made worse in July when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 on board.
But the airline also plans to cut costs, lay off about a third of its 20,000 employees and shrink capacity.
Local competition has taken its toll with low cost airline AirAsia taking most of the shorthaul market from MAS while affiliate AirAsia X has competed with it in the medium and longhaul markets.
