Datuk Captain Izham Ismail - Malaysia Airlines

Sometimes the only way to save something is to make it smaller.

After MH370 disappeared, I didn't fly Malaysia Airlines for years.

Neither did most people. You'd see the red-and-blue livery and think about something else. Book SilkAir instead. Take the later Singapore Airlines flight. Pay extra for anything that wasn't MAS.

The airline wasn't just dealing with tragedy. It was dealing with a brand people avoided.

March 8, 2014. Flight 370 disappeared. 239 people.

Four months later, Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine. 298 people.

537 lives. Two aircraft. RM2.52 billion loss by year-end — the largest in its history.

Bookings collapsed. Corporate budgets banned MAS. The brand became tragedy.

Most airlines in crisis follow a playbook: expand, add routes, grow your way out. Scale is survival.

In 2015, Izham Ismail became Managing Director. A company man. Started as a cadet pilot, spent 25 years at MAS.

He looked at the playbook and did the opposite.

He shrunk the airline.

Malaysia Airlines had 20,000 employees. Izham cut 6,000. Thirty percent gone.

He looked at routes to Los Angeles, Paris, Amsterdam, Buenos Aires — prestigious long-haul destinations — and killed them. Every one bled cash.

He cut the fleet. Fewer planes, lower costs.

Then he restructured RM15 billion in debt. He convinced creditors a smaller, profitable airline could pay them back. A big, losing one couldn't.

Most CEOs would've rebuilt what MAS used to be. Compete with Singapore Airlines on long-haul. Restore the global carrier.

Izham didn't rebuild what was broken. He built something smaller that worked.

Here's what everyone missed.

Aviation believes grow or die. You need scale — more routes, more passengers, better economics.

But MAS didn't have the cash. No reserves for unprofitable routes. No brand strength to fill long-haul planes.

Izham focused on what worked: regional routes. Southeast Asia. ASEAN destinations with demand.

Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. Bangkok. Jakarta. Manila. Hong Kong.

Routes people needed. Routes that made money.

From global carrier to regional one. From aspiration to reality.

By 2020, Malaysia Airlines had been operationally profitable for four years.

2023: exceeded profit targets by 30%.

2024: RM54 million net profit.

From RM2.52 billion loss to RM54 million profit. Thirty months cash positive.

Not massive. But sustainable.

Here's what people miss about shrinking.

It's not failure. It's survival over ego.

Malaysia Airlines couldn't grow out of a RM2.52 billion hole.

Izham made it smaller. Focused. Profitable.

You can't build on a crumbling foundation. Sometimes you tear down half the building to save it.

Izham saved Malaysia Airlines by accepting what it could be, not chasing what it used to be.

What in your business needs to shrink before it can grow?