KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) group managing director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail is keeping mum on whether he will continue leading the aviation company from 2025.
He said his main focus is to make 2024 a year of credibility for MAG by reclaiming Malaysia Airlines' position as among the top 10 best airlines in the world.
"Should I say I'm retiring or not retiring? That is not my priority. Retirement is secondary but my priority now is to make MAG credible. That's my focus. I just want to make it clear that 2024 is the year of credibility (for MAG). That's more important than anything else."
Izham, who has over four decades of experience with Malaysia Airlines, was appointed to helm MAG in 2017. His contract is until year end.
He said MAG has a pool of successors with an average age of 46.
He believes the successors could helm the organisation for another decade and ensure continuity and sustainability of MAG's businesses.
"What's important is to ensure business continuity. These people are able to (continue). I'm at a crossroads but most importantly my focus for 2024 is to demonstrate that MAG is credible," said Izham, who started his career as a Malaysia Airlines pilot.
He said MAG's ambitious journey this year comes with challenges, namely volatile foreign exchange, jet fuel price, economic instability, recession and geopolitical issues.
He said the group needs to remain financially healthy at the operating level to weather the storm.
"This year itself portrays huge challenges, predominantly driven by (jet) fuel (price) and foreign exchange. What we need to demonstrate is actually at the operating level.
"When you look at the financial results, there's operating level and there's net income after taxes. If you want to look at the health of the company, you look at the operating level."
MAG made its first-ever net profit of RM766 million in financial year 2023 against a net loss of RM344 million in 2022.
The group also recorded a 64 per cent year-on-year increase in operating profit at RM889 million in 2023. Its revenue rose 31 per cent to RM13.85 billion from RM10.61 billion in 2022.
MAG's restructuring in 2020 is bearing fruit as the group is showing improved financial performance.
Izham said the group has taken advantage of the changes that happened worldwide as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the five years of financial restructuring should be sealed with credibility in 2024.
He also said MAG has been generating cash since October 2021 and had only taken RM1.3 billion from the RM3.6 billion allocated by parent Khazanah Nasional Bhd in 2021.
On MAG's partnership with Manchester United, Izham said the three-year contract on brand and product activation is not an investment but part of the group's marketing.
"Manchester United is not an investment. It's part of our marketing budget. In any company, you have about 3.0 to 10 per cent of the budget for marketing purposes. Our marketing fund on average is about three per cent of our total cost."
He added that the contract with Manchester United allows MAG to tap over half of the football club's 1.1 billion fans worldwide.