In an interesting new development in Malaysia's air cargo industry, some of the top people in MASKargo Sdn Bhd who either resigned or were removed or re-assigned to other departments have been brought back.

This follows the sacking of Ralph Gotz, a German, as MAS vice president and head of MASKargo, the wholly-owned cargo subsidiary of the national carrier, in December. Abdullah Matzaid, the airline's executive vice president for corporate services, is now temporarily put in overall charge of cargo operations pending a new appointment.

Gotz was appointed by Tajuddin Ramli (photo), the MAS chairman who has relinquished all his shares to the government, after the airline ran into numerous problems. Tajuddin himself admitted publicly he has no more money to pump into the airline to repay its debts.

The three MASKargo's top executives brought back by the new management are Loh Yew Hock, who was the product and services manager, J J Ong, who was sales and marketing manager and Mohd Yunus, the operations manager.

It is not immediately known what their new designations are, but malaysiakini understands from industry insiders that Loh and Mohd Yunus are back at their old jobs.

Serious dislocation

Ong, after leaving MASKargo, was with Westport for a short spell and then joined a freight forwarding company. It is learnt that he has been offered his former job on a contract basis with better terms.

Mohd Yunus, an engineer by training, was very much involved in the planning and development of the MAS Advanced Cargo Centre in Sepang and the preparations of the move from Subang to Sepang.

But he was re-assigned to a different job within MAS after Tajuddin took over and Gotz appointed as vice president for cargo operations.

MAS' cargo services suffered a serious dislocation with the new management's inability then to match the human resources with the physical resources at Sepang. This led to a deterioration of services and numerous complaints from airfreight cargo agents in Kuala Lumpur.

MASKargo has also invested close to a billion ringgit in the last few years on new cargo handling facilities.They include the state-of-the-art MAS Advanced Cargo Centre in Sepang, the MAS European cargo hub in Hahn airport, Germany, and the MAS Middle East cargo hub at the Sharjan International Airport in the United Arab Emirates.

A senior official of MAS told malaysiankini that the MAS board of management has appointed a high-powered committee to look into the investments and to make recommendations for any necessary reviews of existing cargo operations.

Well received

News of the trio's return to the fold of MASKargo was greeted with apparent elation and this was manifested by the large number of people, including representatives of foreign carriers, at the MASKargo's Hari Raya open house at the KLIA Cargo Village in Sepang.

Among those present were Abdullah and the chairman of the Airfreight Forwarders Association of Malaysia (Afam) Walter Culas. Culas told malaysiakini that a new era for MASKargo had opened up with the changes that had taken place in MAS.

He already had several meetings with Abdullah about expanding co-operation with Afam members and the industry as a whole. Culas said he was committed to extend such co-operation and had agreed that at least for the next three months would not go public with any adverse comments on MASKargo while the new management tries to sort out the problems.

"It will be for the airline's best, the industry's and country's," he said.

E-gateway concern

In a related topic, many Malaysian airfreight forwarders have expressed unhappiness with MASKargo's decision to install the Singapore-developed electronic-gateway Spectrum for electronic-booking and confirmation and electronic-invoicing and payments for cargo.

The system costing about RM4 million was purchased from a Singapore company in which Singapore Airlines holds a major stake along with the Trade Development Council of Singapore and the Singapore Freight Forwarders Association.

The reservation on the part of those concerned is that the system might expose certain commercial data that would put Malaysian cargo agents at a disadvantage.

Contacted by malaysiakini, MASKargo IT relationship (cargo) manager David Chan denied that Spectrum is a database system. "It is only an electronic gateway for specific purposes," he said.

He admitted, however, that the same system is being used by Singapore Airlines and has also been sold to Garuda (Indonesia) and Philippine Airlines.

TONY THIEN is a freelance writer based in Kuching.