Thursday 28 Mar 2024
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This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on October 23, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines Bhd’s outgoing chief executive officer Peter Bellew resigned without a job on Oct 8.

Bellew said Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the sole shareholder of Malaysia Airlines, and the airline’s chairman, Tan Sri Md Nor Md Yusof, had done everything possible to persuade him to stay the course. His resignation letter was given to the chairman.

Interestingly, more than one week later on Oct 17, Malaysia Airlines said in a statement that it was caught off guard by the announcement that Bellew would be returning to Irish low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings plc as the latter’s chief operating officer (COO).

The statement came shortly after London-listed Ryanair announced to the stock exchange the appointment of Bellew as the low-cost carrier’s COO giving the public an impression that Malaysia Airlines was not aware of Bellew’s decision until the announcement by Ryanair.

The national carrier highlighted in the statement that Bellew, during a press conference on Sept 27, expressed his commitment to Malaysia Airlines when asked to comment on speculation that he would rejoin Ryanair.

“He said that he was happy to be in Malaysia and that the turnaround of Malaysia Airlines would be ‘the greatest achievement of my life’,” the airline said in the statement.

Still, the Irishman had opted to head home citing the reason that he did not want to be away from his family.

Speaking at the press conference yesterday, Bellew explained that Malaysia Airlines did not make any announcement on his resignation sooner could be because the chairman was trying his best to retain him.

It is apparent that Ryanair might have approached Bellew again after his resignation from Malaysia Airlines.
 

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