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KUALA LUMPUR: The government has yet to make a decision on whether to close the Malaysian Aviation Group Bhd (MAGB), says Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.
MAGB is an entity under Khazanah Nasional Bhd that owns Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB).
“The decision to close MAGB operations depends on MAGB’s negotiations with its creditors and lessors for the restructuring of the company.
“At the same time, Khazanah management will also use its best efforts to ensure that the well-being of its staff members is cared for, including adequate compensation payments in accordance with labor laws.”
Zafrul spoke during his ministerial closing speech about the 2021 budget discussions at the committee stage in Parliament on Monday (Nov 30).
At the beginning of his speech, Zafrul said that the government will continue to help MAB pay the purchase cost of the A380 jets it has manufactured in the past.
“When Covid-19 arrived, the government began to help pay the loan with RM180 thousand this year, and it will continue with RM219 thousand next year.”
Zafrul said that to date, Khazanah has injected RM28bil into MAGB, and its liabilities totaling RM16bil will be restructured.
He also said that from 2015 to 2018, MAGB has had losses every year, that is, RM1.1bil in 2015; RM0.7bil in 2016; RM1.2bil in 2017; and RM1.3bil in 2018.
As of August 31 this year, MAGB’s liquidity was RM366 thousand, Zafrul said.
“The impact of Covid-19 in the world is very bad and the MAB is not exempt from it. MAB is currently operating with 75% of its aircraft unable to fly due to travel restrictions, which has negatively affected its capacity and revenues, ”he added.
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