Mueller: Its personal not political

PETALING JAYA: Outgoing Malaysia Airlines Bhd CEO and managing director Christoph Mueller has clarified he is leaving the company for purely personal, not political reasons.

He also stressed his leaving was not due to his inability to handle the task of turning around the airline, The Star online reported today.

Mueller was speaking to staff during a town hall meeting where he also admitted that his decision would hurt his credentials as well as bank balance.

“All of that (rumours flying around) are not true.”

He said the reason behind his departure was personal in nature, and that he could not divulge any of it but hoped everyone would understand.

Mueller’s sudden announcement to exit the national airline on Tuesday shocked the industry. He was hand-picked mid last year by MAS’s parent company Khazanah Nasional Bhd, to restructure the ailing airline.

His contract ends in two years.

Mueller, however, hoped to remain on the board of MAS as a non-executive director to see through the transition under its new leader.

The Star Online reported that the town hall meeting was attended by over 500 employees, who were briefed by Mueller and his chief operating officer Peter Bellew, who would be appointed as executive director to help facilitate a smooth transition for a new CEO.

This was the first town hall session with employees. Mueller will be conducting several more over the next few days.

Since taking over, Mueller had axed 6,000 employees, revamped the airline’s operations and cut several unprofitable routes.

Mueller also managed to get Emirates as a code-share partner with MAS to give the national carrier the global connectivity it needs. Both Mueller and Bellew presented several slides showing the progress made by the airline since September last year during the town hall session.

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