Sepang, 1 November 2016: Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG) today announced the appointment of Captain Izham Ismail as the new Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB), effective 1 November 2016. Captain Izham served a short stint as CEO of MASwings and is now replaced by Aminuddin Zakaria.

In announcing the appointment, Group CEO Peter Bellew said, “On behalf of the Board of MAG, I am very pleased to welcome Captain Izham back to MAB. He is no stranger to the role having served as Director of Operations from 2012 to 2015. With close to 36 years of experience in the aviation industry, and having just completed the Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School, I am confident that he will be able to lead the Operations and Engineering Division to new levels of excellence. Being our own internal home grown talent, I look forward to working closely with him in delivering operational excellence to the entire Group.”

Captain Izham began his career with Malaysia Airlines as a trained pilot from the Philippines Airline Aviation School and has operated various aircraft from the Fokker 27, Airbus 330 to the Boeing 747. He has served various management roles namely Head of Operations Programme Management Office, Executive Vice President of Flight Operations and General Manager for Technical and Development amongst others. He is also currently a Board of Director for various companies such as Hamilton Sundstrand Malaysia, MAB Kargo, MAB Academy and MAS Awana.

Peter Bellew added, “I also welcome Aminuddin to his new role at MASwings. He has over 27 years of professional experience in the engineering field and I am confident that he will develop a comprehensive and sustainable plan to improve MASwings’ operations, financial performance and customer service experience. The Group remains committed towards advancing this community airline serving rural air services in Sabah and Sarawak.”

Aminuddin holds a degree in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and began his career at Malaysia Airlines as a Trainee, Aircraft Maintenance. He spent the next 12 years performing a variety of roles before moving to GE Aviation for the next 14 years, with his last position as Regional Sales Director for Asia Pacific. He re-joined Malaysia Airlines in 2012 as Senior Vice President of Airline Engineering and was appointed as Head, Technical Operations in September 2015.

MASwings is serving a network of 24 destinations and operates 10 64-seater ATR 72-500, an advanced turboprop aircraft which connects Kota Kinabalu, Kuching, and Miri International Airports to major towns and cities in East Malaysia. It is also the sole operator serving the Rural Air Services routes in Sabah and Sarawak with six 19-seater Viking Air DHC6 400 Series Twin-Otter, operating out of Miri. These aircraft are deemed a vital lifeline in providing air transportation into remote and highlander areas many of which are inaccessible by road. MASwings’ regular Twin Otter service operates out of eleven (11) Short Take Off Landing (STOL) ports across Sabah and Sarawak.