KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 — A recent survey has shown that the Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) brand is still healthy amid its various scandals and calls for it to be shut down.

The survey by YouGov Plan & Track, an international Internet-based market research and data analytics firm headquartered in the UK, reveals how the public in both Malaysia and across neighbouring countries saw the carrier.

And according to its findings, it seems Malaysians still view the national carrier in a positive light.

The airline’s Index score, which measures overall brand health, stands at +32.3 among Malaysians, +3.8 in Indonesia, but -9.7 in Singapore.

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YouGov pointed out that this comes after the MH370 and MH17 tragedy, the resignation of CEO Christoph Mueller, an untrue story about pork being served inflight and recent revelations of Khazanah Nasional Berhad’s losses amounting to RM6 billion coming from its failure to turn around the airline.

“Malaysia Airlines is an interesting case study, as few brands have experienced the range of challenges it has faced in such a short period of time,” said YouGov Asia Pacific head of Data Products Ervin Ha in a statement today.

“It appears encouraging though in spite of rough times some Malaysians remain loyal to the brand.”

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Subsequently, there was a dip in MAB’s Buzz scores, which asks what people have heard about the brand in the past two weeks.

The survey said MAB’s Buzz scores dropped from +37.4 to +28.4 when debris was found purportedly from MH370 in November last year.

It further dropped from +30.5 to +26.5 in less than a week when false news about the pork dish being served came to light.

Even news of a sub-brand ‘Amal’ to provide Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage flights to Saudi Arabia on February 12 this year couldn’t save their Buzz scores from slipping further down.

YouGov also highlighted the changing trends in passengers using the airlines.

It said the brand’s current customers are most likely men aged 30 to 44 working full-time earning more than RM10,000, while in the past the passengers were mostly young single women aged between 16-29.

“Our data shows the type of consumers who have shifted away from the carrier in recent times,” said Ha.

“To fully get regain positive brand health, Malaysia Airlines needs to find ways to reconnect to these customers and win them back.”

YouGov’s Plan and Track Service helps clients understand and target key consumer segments, track the effectiveness of advertising, marketing and public relations strategies and campaigns, and measure brand perception on a continuous basis.