Supply chain snags: Airlines in Malaysia, Thailand among those affected as travel demand rebounds

According to business executives, Asia-Pacific journey need has recovered from the pandemic, but profits at the country’s airlines are under pressure from supply chain issues that have hampered operations and subjected them to stricter consumer protection laws.

As the aircraft sector recovered from the pandemic, higher-than-expected repairs were required for the most recent engine generations.

” The supply chain issue is the biggest challenge the industry is facing”, Subhas Menon, the director-general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines ( AAPA ), said at the trade body’s annual meeting in Brunei this week.

Airlines are forced to cut flights, shift parts around, and rent stop-gap motors or planes to keep operations running, which is a record-keeping turnaround time for website maintenance.

Chai Eamsiri, the CEO of Thai Airways, claimed that the Rolls-Royce vehicles on its Boeing 787 jet used to get about three months to service, but that has since blown out to approximately six.

” We have to extend the plane. We used to perform 12.5 hours a moment, now we have to bend it to 13 plus”, he told Reuters on the outside of the meeting.

Supply chain anger

The eyes of major airlines, including Kazakhstan’s Air Astana, Singapore Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and Thai Airways, reacted with anger over repair times and argued that governments should cease blaming airlines for difficulties.

The supply chain is the source of the root cause, according to the statement. But we are the one facing the customer”, Eamsiri told the conference.

As well as the United States, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, and the Philippines are among the nations strengthening flight consumer protections to mandate refunds in the event of difficulties and cancellations, despite the rules being less stringent than those in EU countries that require payments to damaged passengers.

According to Peter Foster, CEO of Air Astana, aircraft manufacturers “must get their work along.”

Malaysia Airlines experienced a number of service disruptions this year, which caused a 20 % reduction in network capacity from September, as a result of a shortage of planes, labor, and parts.

Malaysia’s civil aircraft regulation cut the length of the company’s air operator certification to one time from three years after an investigation.

” All carriers are wringing the neck of our providers”, Malaysia Airlines CEO Izham Ismail told visitors.

Engine cleaning used to get around 55 weeks before the crisis, but now it needs 100 or more, Ismail said.

Staff from Rolls-Royce and Airbus each stated on their own that they were working to improve supplier access to financing.

Fares falling

Go in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for around 32 % of international passenger traffic, recovered later than other parts of the world due to a belated raising of pandemic travel restrictions, particularly in China.

In September, customer quantities for 40 Asia-Pacific based companies averaged 97.5 % of the corresponding quarter in 2019, according to AAPA information.

As the world’s airlines resume their aircraft-based operations, desire has stabilized, but prices are dropping as a result.

Singapore Airlines, seen as a harbinger for the region, last year posted a 48.5 % fall in interim net income, reflecting stiff opposition, and flagged its earnings would be under force despite robust travel demand. – News