TRANSPORT Minister Anthony Loke recently posted a picture of his hot meal including the signature satay, which is served on Malaysia Airlines (MH) business class, when he flew to Kuching to attend a Cabinet meeting and the Malaysia Day celebrations.
In his Facebook post, he assured that the airline was resuming its hot meal service in phases and that MH is taking efforts to ensure services would be back to normal as soon as possible.
Without question, Malaysian Hospitality has taken a beating over the past few weeks. Passengers, especially those who had paid hefty prices for their business class tickets, have been furious. Rightfully, too.
Original Penang Kayu Nasi Kandar boss, Buruhan Mohamed, in an interview expressed his dismay but said he would continue to fly MH.
It’s the same with me. I have always been a supporter of MH, not just because it’s our beloved national carrier, but it has the best crew.
I think I can say this with some degree of qualification after having flown to over 60 countries on many different airlines.
Last week, I flew to Hong Kong and Beijing on business class, and my carrier, Cathay Pacific, ran out of blankets. The dim sum that was served was certainly below par. I expected more from CX which would surely know what an acceptable dim sum should be like.
On a recent flight on KLM, I was served fusion Asian food by so-called master chefs, according to the introduction on the menu. Perhaps, it was made for Westerners to suit their taste buds.
British Airways are notoriously bad when it comes to food. On a recent flight from Zurich to London, in economy class, I had to pay for my coffee.
You only get a bottle of water and the flight attendant looked like she was forced to do her job. It’s my choice for the worst airline. But maybe not, the American airlines are probably on the “worst” list, too.
In 2022, it was reported that all BA’s shortest domestic and European flights would not receive any catering at all, while some longer European flights under an hour and a half in flight duration, ‘’may also go without food’’ with passengers given vouchers to buy food in the airport before boarding their flights.
This year, it was reported that BA passengers were fed Kentucky Fried Chicken – a leg each – on a 12-hour flight after the plane’s catering carts were said to be not properly chilled with the food having to be disposed of.
Of course, these wrongs by other airlines cannot justify the missteps by MH. Two or even more mistakes by others doesn’t make MH right and a hungry passenger is an angry passenger, regardless if it’s business or economy class.
But many of us have grumbled, if not, suffered over the quality of food on MH provided by Brahim’s Food Services, which had a 25-year concession to handle in-flight catering.
To be fair to the MH management, which has come under heavy criticism, it’s a legacy issue that the present team must handle.
Ending the contract of Brahim’s brought a lot of cheers but these teething problems are the price that MH is paying.
The battle on the “termination of convenience” clause which Brahim’s refused to accept, clearly shows the airline’s seriousness about cleaning up all its legacy contracts, be it with local or international companies.
It is noteworthy that the financial restructuring in 2020-2021 gave the airline group the opportunity to holistically repair its balance sheet and address decades-long legacy issues, resulting in a reduction in liabilities of over RM15bil, and eliminating RM10bil in debt.
The battle continues as the airline renegotiates other contracts that are nearing its term, and this time around it was Brahim’s.
Whilst this was ongoing, Brahim’s pulled the brakes and served MH with a service discontinuation notice, giving the airline only two months to prepare itself.
Any setup would have been faced with teething problems given the extremely short lead time, what more the airline business with its highly regulated and complex processes involved.
In short, the longstanding catering contract between Malaysia Airlines Bhd (MAB) and Brahim’s Food Services (BFS) ended on Aug 31, 2023 after extensive negotiations between the two parties since Q4 2022 did not result in an amicable agreement.
BFS had in early June 2023, served MAB with a notice of service discontinuation effective July 1, 2023, while discussions were still ongoing for a new contract. BFS subsequently retracted the notice and agreed to extend service until Aug 31, 2023.
The question is why didn’t MAB appoint a new caterer sooner?
“While negotiations with BFS were ongoing, MAG had also considered other short- term and long-term solutions for its overall catering plan, which all require extensive preparation.
“It is impossible to shift to a new provider within a short span of time, hence MAG was working towards continuing the contract with BFS. Our alternative caterer, POS Aviation, operates on a much smaller scale and is not able to expand in time to accommodate all MAB flights. In total, MAB serves 40,000 inflight meals a day from KLIA,’’ it said in a reply.
But the biggest misreporting by some media was the claim that MH had stopped serving meals when the airline’s FAQ section, MH clearly stated that meals will still be provided.
However, it being a full-service carrier, it noted that passengers were allowed to bring their own food subject to certain conditions.
So, what happens now? Full hot meal services won’t be available for a while as MH is prepared to only say in phases.
The high lifts equipped with proper storage capabilities (chillers) have arrived earlier than anticipated and we hope for Malaysia’s sake, passengers will have their full hot meals offered soon to all destinations.
To make up for this, MH should perhaps offer higher Enrich miles as a reward to its loyal passengers who are still committed to MH.
But despite all the hiccups, MH will remain my choice simply because it offers direct flights, and no other airline greets me with ‘’welcome home to Malaysia.’’
