Weaker RM or just excuse to cover up poor management

The biggest joke in town for the last few years is airlines of Malaysia origin are running at BIG losses while regional airlines including Indonesia Garuda is still operating with profits. I wonder what did Garuda does right that AirAsia and MAS did wrong? SIA as expected operating profitably. If SIA run into losses, I do not expect the rest will be opposite given that I use SIA as benchmark.

The best part of the whole story is the losses are due to stronger US$ or weaker RM and fuel. Well fuel factor has 2 variables namely a) US$ denominated material and b) material purchasing cost.

Guess what the CEO/MD, Finance Director/CFO who are salaried by the millions doing about the operational problems? Not customer problems. My conclusion is these salary should be tied to accountable performance. Imagine buying shares into companies run by people who have no idea how to manage these problems! Malaysia Boleh! All these folks are good at marketing gimmicks and publicity. At whose expense? Is this limited to Airlines operating from Malaysia? The truth is this malaise also spread to agricultural food based commodities companies in Malaysia. 

In 2013, Garuda saw net profits fall to US$11.2 million (S$14.1 million), down 89.9 per cent from US$110.8 million in 2012. The airline's operating income decreased 66.4 per cent to US$56.4 million compared to 2012 when it recorded operating income of US$168.1 million. The decline in profits last year was mainly due to a weaker rupiah and the airline's huge spending on developing its subsidiary, PT Citilink Indonesia

SINGAPORE - Singapore Airlines (SIA) said Thursday its third-quarter net profit fell 65 per cent from the previous year, weighed down by a huge legal settlement bill in the US and losses from associated companies.

The flag carrier said in a statement that net profit in the three months ended December was $50.1 million, down from $142.5 million in the same quarter the year before.

(Reuters) - Shares of AirAsia X Bhd (AIRX.KL), the long-haul arm of Asia's largest budget carrier, fell 4.8 percent to their lowest since its IPO last June after registering a net loss of 131.3 million ringgit for its fourth quarter.

AirAsia X cited high operating costs and foreign exchange losses for the decline in earnings. It recorded a net loss of 86.9 million ringgit for the full year ended December 31, 2013.


PETALING JAYA: With a year left to go, analysts and market observers are not convinced that Malaysia Airlines (MAS) can break even by end-2014, as outlined in its turnaround plan.

The national carrier, which had adopted a strategy to sell as many seats as possible, posted another quarter of losses in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2013 (Q4’13), its fourth straight quarter in the red and the worst yearly performance since 2011’s shock net loss of RM2.5bil.