Loss-making Malaysia Airlines to axe routes

Loss-making national carrier Malaysia Airlines said it will cut eight routes to Europe, Africa, the Middle East and other destinations starting next month as it seeks to return to a profit. The airline, which has struggled to stay in the black in recent years, unveiled a business plan last week aimed at becoming profitable by 2013 that would include a route "rationalisation" but did not name the affected routes. Routes servicing Rome, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Karachi, Dubai, the Saudi Arabian city of Dammam, and the city of Surabaya in Indonesia, will be dropped it said in a statement released late Wednesday. They will be phased out at different times throughout January and February. Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the airline's new chief executive officer, said the destinations were withdrawn because they were unprofitable. "The withdrawal was based on our own independent internal profitability and yield analysis," he said in the statement. Ahmad Jauhari said the carrier planned to instead bolster services to major destinations in Asia that have better prospects. "Concurrently, Malaysia Airlines will focus on the core (Southeast Asia) region, South Asia, greater China and North Asia, where the demand outlook is strong, fuelled by a burgeoning middle class," the statement said. In the third quarter of this year, the airline posted its third straight quarterly loss, owing to high fuel costs and increased competition.