Malaysia Airlines has appointed a new country manager for Australia, New Zealand and South West Pacific after promoting incumbent Lee Poh Kait to a wider role within the recently restructured airline.
Lee, who has been with Malaysia Airlines for eight years, will have an expanded role as regional manager for Australia, NZ, South West Pacific and ASEAN.
Meanwhile, Bennet Michael Stephens is the new country manager for Australia, New Zealand and South West Pacific. Stephens was previously Malaysia Airlines commercial route manager for Australia, NZ, the Americas and North Asia.
New Malaysia Airlines chief executive Christoph Mueller described Lee as one of the top sales and marketing executives in the aviation industry.
“His knowledge, passion and strong relationships with staff and partners make him the best person to lead our new company forward,” Mueller said in a statement.
As part of a massive restructure of the loss-making carrier, Malaysia Airlines was relaunched on September 1 as new company, Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB).
The “new” airline will have a workforce of about 14,000, after 6,000 employees were made redundant as part of the transition from the old Malaysia Airlines System (MAS) to MAB.
The oneworld alliance member has also ended service to Brisbane and and reduced frequencies to Perth, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide from its Kuala Lumpur hub as part of broader network changes in a bid to return the Malaysia flag carrier to profitability.
The airline was also closing its airport lounges in Singapore and Perth.
