He said all four aircraft were the Boeing 737-8 model from the US company.
According to Izham, Boeing was supposed to deliver 13 aircraft while Airbus was to deliver four planes by the end of the year. He said MAG was now expecting delivery of only three aircraft from Airbus.
He said this issue had partly affected its operations.
“The global shortage of parts has affected the on-time delivery of our new aircraft orders, which, in turn, has impacted our fleet planning,” he said in a statement today.
Izham also said global shortages led to spare parts production delays, which in turn led to longer turnarounds for the repair and overhaul of plane engines.
He said MAG relied on external partners for these services, which led to “a lack of engines for our operations”.
“Despite these challenges, MAG has maintained the quality of its maintenance work, managing both internally and externally, even with the associated high costs and financial impact.”
Izham said MAG would focus on stabilising its operations while ensuring the safety and reliability of its airlines.
“Ahead of the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia’s (CAAM) latest directive, MAG had taken proactive steps to reduce capacity with the objective of ensuring safe and reliable operations.
“While it is a difficult decision, our focus is to prioritise customers first, ensuring we can deliver credible flight schedules, and making sure of the best possible customer experience moving forward.” he said.
CAAM had reduced the air operator certificate of Malaysia Airlines from three years to one following operational difficulties which led to frequent flight delays. This led to the airline scaling back certain routes.
Transport minister Loke Siew Fook said a shorter AOC validity period meant more frequent audits would be conducted on the national carrier.
He said the airline would be implementing a mitigation plan, which would include a recruitment drive for skilled workers and reducing MAB Engineering Services’ (Mabes) scope of maintenance, repair and overhaul for third parties, so that it could focus on Malaysia Airlines’s aircraft.
Meanwhile, Izham also apologised to affected customers, assuring them that MAG is working diligently to provide compensation options, including flight reallocations and full refunds without any penalty charges.
“Due to the increased traffic we are experiencing at our Global Contact Centre, we encourage passengers to use the ‘My Booking’ feature on our website for quicker service and to check the status of their flights.”