Safety Is Non-negotiable For MAG, Will Do Annual Drug Screening Among Crew
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Safety remains a non-negotiable priority for Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) as it continues to strengthen its safety measures, processes and standards, its president and group chief executive officer, Captain Nasaruddin A Bakar, said.
This is to ensure that the national carrier earns the trust of its customers daily.
In this regard, Captain Nasaruddin said MAG had completed drug screening of more than 1,500 pilots across its airlines on Aug 15. Screening was also conducted on all pilots and cabin crew at Firefly.
“As of yesterday, we have covered 98.8 per cent of our cabin crew in Malaysia Airlines, and we hope to reach 100 per cent today,” he said at a press conference here today.
“With that, we would have covered all our flight crew, both Malaysia Airlines and Firefly. So far, all the tests were negative,” he said.
Captain Nasaruddin said the initial screening was conducted as a one-off exercise. It would now become a mandatory annual requirement for all cabin crew.
“We are also doing random testing almost every week.
“Safety demands discipline in the decisions we make, the standards we uphold and the way we respond when things don't go as planned,” he said.
He noted that getting the fundamentals right was increasingly important as the aviation industry faces various external pressures, including fuel price volatility, supply chain constraints and geopolitical uncertainty.
“Demand remains encouraging, but we continue to navigate fuel prices, volatility, supply chain constraints and geopolitical uncertainty.
“Fuel alone for MAG accounts for close to 40 per cent of our total operating costs. Every US$1 increase in fuel prices has an impact of approximately RM50 million on our costs,” he said.
While MAG cannot control such external pressures, it can determine how it prepares and responds to them.
This includes strengthening business areas and safety measures to improve competitiveness, and delivering products and experiences valued by customers.
-- BERNAMA