Christoph Mueller, the newly-appointed chief of Malaysia Airlines, has said that the company is "technically bankrupt", and plans to completely restructure the airline.
The former Aer Lingus chief, who was also the chairman of An Post before stepping down to take over the new role, said the the problems the airline are facing began before the two tragic incidents last year.
“We are technically bankrupt," said Mueller. "The decline of performance started long before the tragic events of 2014.”
Targeting a return to profit, Mueller announced his plans to restructure, planning to cut a third of the workforce, reduce the number of routes and review its long haul fleet.
The unprecedented disasters involving the MH370 and MH17 jets in 2014 overshadowed what were already serious financial difficulties for the airline, which has made a financial loss every year since 2011.
It is unclear whether Mueller intends to change the name of the airline to gradually disassociate itself from the tragedies that are now synonymous without the carrier, however he has vowed to "stop the bleeding" in 2015, an return to growth by 2017.
