Troubled Malaysia Airlines to be rebranded next week

Loss-making Malaysia Airlines (MAS) will be rebranded and restructured into a new company.

A new name and livery for the troubled carrier are on the cards and the rebranding will be unveiled next week, Reuters reported.

Chief executive Christoph Mueller, who joined on 1 May from Irish national carrier Aer Lingus, told the news agency that the new company will be like a "start-up".

Mueller confirmed the carrier had been trying to sell two of its A380s and will likely have fewer planes overall. But he added that the new company will keep all of its current types of aircraft including the Airbus A330s, Boeing 777-200s and 737-800s.

The airline's costs are 20% higher than that of its rivals and Mueller said it will take three years to close that gap and return to profitability.

Mueller, who has helped turn around Aer Lingus, Belgium's Sabena, and Germany's Lufthansa, told the news agency: "I'm hired to run the new company entirely on commercial terms and there's very little margin for error.

"It's not a continuation of the old company in a new disguise, everything is new."

Khazanah, which took MAS private late last year, said on 25 May that the chairman of audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers Malaysia has 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, which has seen successive years of losses, suffered huge damage to its brand in 2014.

In July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over rebel-held territory in eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard.

In March 2014, flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, deviated from its course and disappeared in what has become one of the greatest mysteries in aviation history.