Malaysia Airlines CEO Christoph Mueller resigns over ‘changing personal circumstances’

Malaysia Airlines Bhd’s Chief Executive and Managing Director Christoph Mueller is quitting after only one year at the helm of the ailing national carrier due to “changing personal circumstances”, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

Mueller, who assumed the CEO post in May last year, had signed a three-year contract with the heavy task of reviving the airline that he declared last June to be “technically bankrupt”.

The statement said Mueller will leave in September, but intends to remain on the MAB board as a non-executive director.

It said the board “has commenced a search for a new CEO which will encompass both internal and external potential candidates.”

In a circular e-mailed to staff and seen by Kyodo News, Mueller said his decision to leave is due to “personal reasons which are beyond my control”.

Mueller who has a reputation as “The Terminator” for the job cuts he executed when he was chief executive of Aer Lingus of Ireland, was brought in by Malaysia sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional Bhd as part of its six billion ringgit (US$1.5 billion) recovery plan for MAB.

The plan unveiled in August 2014 involved delisting the company and making it wholly owned by Khazanah, cutting 6,000 jobs and doing away with unprofitable routes.