Business and Finance

Outgoing Malaysia Airlines CEO Christoph Mueller to join Emirates Airline

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ExpatGo has reached out to Emirates for confirmation of this story; we will update the article as soon as when we can.

According to Swiss travel news website, travelnews.ch, Malaysia Airlines CEO Christoph Mueller is due to join Emirates Airline as the company’s Chief Transformation Officer, after he leaves his current job in September.

When Malaysian Airlines (MAS) was facing a crisis in 2014, they hired German, aviation giant Christoph Mueller to help turn the company around.

Mueller, in his new role as CEO, made big changes – some of which were painful but necessary – such as huge layoffs, retiring an entire fleet of planes and striking a code sharing partnership with Emirates Airlines.

Everything seemed to be going just right; Malaysia Airlines showed a profit for the first quarter of this year and if all goes according to plan, they aim to be a profitable business again by 2018.

mueller

So it was quite a shock when in April, after less than a year in the job, he announced he was leaving due to “changing personal circumstances”, and would step down in September.

Despite repeatedly being asked for a fuller explanation of why he was not completing his contract, he refused to be drawn.

When asked, yet again, during an interview with the business radio station, BFM, a rather exasperated Mueller said “I understand this is a business station and I would ask you which part of ‘personal reasons’ do you not understand.”

According to Ben Schlappig on travel website One Mile at a Time, a close source revealed that Mueller’s decision to leave was driven largely by the fact that he was fed-up of the culture of corruption at the airline and that improvement was not a priority for the management there.

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In a recent interview with a German broadcaster, he said that when he joined, employees were sleeping on the job and the company was significantly overpaying suppliers.

There is no independent corroboration of the rumours regarding the true nature of his ‘personal reasons’ for leaving Malaysia Airlines but given that he seems be moving directly to another job it seems probable that the reasons are more likely job-related than totally personal in nature.





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Comments

Charlie Bircham

Oh no he has another job no fucking surprise there

Ian Charlesworth

Corruption in a Malaysian company !!! My word … Surely not !!! Can’t possibly be true

Andy King

Think we’ve had the same conversation mate 🙂

Thalji Md Kadri

Reason is money money big money …. in business.making more money the aim … loyalty compassion intergrity does not matters

David Kelly

I hope he doesn’t transform Emirates into a low cost carrier model . That would be a major FUBAR. I personally think that the main reason he left MAS was due to differences in business ‘culture’

King Muhamad

Malaysian government itself kills this once one of the best airlines in the world…now its another shithole …what a sad tragedy

Azmi Nordin

If the PM & family don’t believe in MAS and fly private jets, what can you expect…

Nicholas Betts

MAS is destined to go down the tube. The Malaysian corrupt supply chain, indifferent middle management and over indulged union. Add to this falling standards, meals are now inedible even in business class, no wine on regional flights all spell a major loss to be funded by an increasingly bankrupt government. I am platinum and lifetime gold but I am voting with my feet. Malindo, even Garuda are better regional airlines.

Sandeep Juneja

Best they try to sell MAS to SIA

Thomas Guldimann

Best supply all employees sleeping pills n put the company in hibernation

Lou Belfast

and passengers too, as the service level might not get any better

Derek Stephen

Malaysia Airlines is destined to fail just like Malaysia itself. There is no hope?

Ravin Kanaga

Im so sad said by a msian..
Malaysia Airline was our stepping stone….without MAS we r nowhere…our engrs…tech n mechanics r all round world.

Derek Stephen

Ravin Kanaga The good old days are gone ?

James Yap

And why are the former mechs, techs and LAEs of MH all around the world? Given a chance, I’d love to work in Malaysia and go home to my nearest and dearest family and friends everyday ….. but due to the inefficiencies and, dare I say it, discriminatory nature of the management, we were obliged to make a living in foreign lands. So while, in some peoples’ opinion, it may seem on the surface that we are “ungrateful”, one might need to stand back and think about why so many of the skilled ex-employees chose to leave their homeland ……

Derek Stephen

James Yap No discriminatory policies in your Brexit land Meh??

Ravin Kanaga

Other side of the grass is greener.

James Yap

Derek Stephen not as open as I would like it to be …… Like in bolehland ?

Nicholas Betts

In Shanghai. As typical MH389 is one hour late and it’s 1 hr to check in at business class line. If you are in economy many hours. This is taking cost cutting to stupid proportions. MH is not a budget airline it charges full fare. We expect service especially when buying a full fare business class.even when buying economy I don’t expect to see lines stretching around the airport. South China Airways for me next China trip.

Dirk Reese

Corruption in Malaysia? Say it isnt so…

Todd Wheelan

life i$ $o rough at the top

Tommy Chin

Of course have to leave! This kind of working environment make him run away!!

Diego Rodríguez Álvarez

A German working in Malaysia. I send you hugs!

Jimmy Sapporo

Hahaha ,, cos he couldn’t sleep on his job that’s the problem he left .

Steven Harvey

What! Corruption in Malaysian companies?! Surely you jest…

Tun Fatimah

Bagus laa… Next scandals is emirates crew ke!

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