KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 18): Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah) said a New Straits Times report yesterday on the departure of Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew is "erroneous and misleading".

In a statement released today, Khazanah said: "As provided for by the MAS Recovery Plan issued on 29th August 2014 and by the Malaysian Airline System Berhad (Administration) Act 2015, the restructuring of Malaysia Airlines follows a well laid-out governance and approval framework.

"The Malaysia Airlines Board of Directors and management submits it’s key plans to Khazanah as the sole shareholder and funder of the restructuring, and collectively, we have worked closely together to deliver the progress of the on-going restructuring to date.

"Khazanah also wishes to clarify that no Khazanah official was approached by the New Straits Times for comment prior to the publication of this speculative article."

The article with the headline "“Khazanah meddling led to Bellew exit?” was written by NSTP group managing editor A Jalil Hamid and posted in the NST website at about 10pm last night.

In the article, Jalil quoted an unnamed source as saying that Khazanah was "micro-managing" Malaysia Airlines.

"There were cases where Khazanah bypassed the MAB board," the article reported.

Yesterday, the aviation sector has rocked by news that Bellew would rejoin Ryanair.

Later in the evening, Malaysia Airlines released a statement saying it took note of the "unexpected announcement" by Ryanair regarding Bellew's return to the latter, and that its board of directors will meet on the issue, with an announcement to be made "in due course".

It also highlighted that Bellew had, 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.

With this development, Malaysia Airlines assured that its operations and services will continue as normal, and that its commitment and priority remains with its customers.

"The turnaround of Malaysia Airlines remains on track and on schedule, as per the MAS Recovery Plan," it added.