KUALA LUMPUR: Shortages in the supply chain, manpower and parts, as well as delays in aircraft delivery, have pushed the operations of Malaysia Airlines to its "breaking point", said Sobie Aviation, an independent aviation analysis and consulting firm based in Singapore.

Like many other airlines, Sobie Aviation's independent analyst Brendan Sobie noted that it has been difficult to maintain operations given the ongoing constraints in the industry for the last couple of years.

"They (Malaysia Airlines) are not alone, but unfortunately, they have been impacted, particularly in the last few months more than others. Things escalated and reached the breaking point a couple of months ago, where they ran out of aircraft and parts," he said in an interview with the CNBC news channel recently.

He also pointed out that Malaysia Airlines' on-time performance (OTP) has been declining for the past one or two years. "This is not a new thing, it has just reached the breaking point, but all airlines are able to manage schedules accordingly. I think something obviously went wrong here because not every airline has problems like Malaysia Airlines," he explained, adding that it is all about "how you manage the issue."

On Aug 24, Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), which operates Malaysia Airlines, announced its plan to reduce flights and routes between now and December 2024.

The decision comes in response to recent disruptions in their services, which affected Malaysia Airlines, Firefly, and Amal services during the week of Aug 19, 2024.

MAG group managing director Datuk Captain Izham Ismail said measures are being taken to implement corrective actions regarding recent incidents to ensure the fleet's long-term reliability and operational robustness.

Commenting further on inherent logistical issues and predicaments, Universiti Kuala Lumpur's (UniKL) head of the Malaysian Institute of Aviation Search and Rescue, associate professor Major Dr Mohd Harridon Mohamed Suffian, said the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) should work in tandem with airlines to mitigate ingrained issues. "Particularly (they should) focus on an astute predictive maintenance model to ensure aircraft component failures are projected accurately within the desired time frame," he told Bernama.

This, he said, would subsequently lead to a decrease in the stipulated time frame to repair, overhaul, and maintain the aircraft. "Aircraft parts nowadays are intricate and complex, and it's beneficial for airlines to share their maintenance databases with OEMs for all parties to holistically develop an accurate model of component failures," he added.

According to the Transport Ministry, Malaysia Airlines has been instructed to submit a monthly report on the implementation status of the mitigation plan to the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM).

Based on its investigation into the airline, CAAM has cut the renewal period for Malaysia Airlines' air operator certificate (AOC) to one year from three years.