“We are delighted to announce the appointment of Thandalam and Khoo, both of whom bring a wealth of expertise in line with our continued focus on governance, human capital and diversity,” said AAAGL chairman Jamaludin Ibrahim.

The duo have invaluable experience in the areas of finance, technology and human resource, which will be critical to support the company’s next phase of progression and development, Jamaludin said.

“The combined strength of the newly formed board bodes well for AAAGL to deliver positive returns to our shareholders and most importantly, adds greater value to our guests,” said group CEO Bo Lingam.

The present board of directors include Jamaludin, Suvabha Charoenying, Lim Serh Ghee, Francisco Lim, Norza Zakaria and Tharumalingam Kanagalingam.

Thandalam is a senior finance professional with over 40 years of experience in technology and telecommunications across the Asia-Pacific region.

Prior to this, he spent 20 years in senior business unit roles with Hewlett Packard and nine years as group CFO of Celcom and Axiata.

Khoo’s 40-year career has taken her across the human resource management spectrum.

She has spent time as a human resource consultant at an international agency and a public-listed conglomerate. She has experience in merger and acquisition integration exercises and has led negotiations for the establishment of employee unions.

Meanwhile, the airline group announced significant performance improvements across all key metrics including a 633% increase in the number of passengers and a notable load factor of 84% in the second quarter of this year.

The company said that it has returned to pre-pandemic passenger levels and is on track to return to 100% capacity by Q1 2023 on many of its popular routes.