My dear MAS, it’s time to fly! WORK CUT OUT: The management has to get its act together to ensure the airline regains its former glory (New Strait Times)

May 30, 2012

THE satay wasn’t all that great on the MAS flight to and from Tokyo last week. I’ve had better satay, and they’re not just the famous Samuri type from Kajang.  The way the meat is marinated and the nut sauce are what make great satay.

But no one was complaining, partly because it’s nice to eat a familiar dish after being away for a while. And the cabin crew was polite, helpful and obliging.

Familiarity — that’s one word that many fliers have come to associate with our national airline. We are used to seeing it fly with pride, the wau bulan forever graceful when landing and taking off. Mind you, it’s still graceful, but with a little less shine.

The decoupling exercise between MAS and AirAsia is now history. MAS, with a longer history and track record, has to set its house in order and regain that glitter that was once the nation’s pride. And it can be done, if recent news is anything to go by.

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I recall the years I was covering its industrial dispute in the 1980s when the London-based International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) rallied behind Airlines Employees Union when MAS employees’ wage negotiations ended in a dispute.

MAS employees were part of an industry-wide union then, which raised an SOS to the ITF seeking intervention. For a while, MAS flights faced worldwide antagonism with threats that no airports would service MAS aircraft.

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Read more: My dear MAS, it’s time to fly! – Columnist – New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/my-dear-mas-it-s-time-to-fly-1.88012#ixzz1wLZXuKn3