Australia shifts MH370 search zone further south

Investigators Wednesday (Oct 8) confirmed that the priority search area for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has moved further south as end-of-flight scenarios indicated it may have spiralled into the Indian Ocean.

Seven months after the Boeing jet disappeared with 239 people onboard, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, leading the hunt for the jet, said ongoing analysis had helped refine the zone where an underwater search began this week.

"The latest analyses indicates that the underwater search should be prioritised further south within the wide search area for the next phase of the search," it said.

Despite an extensive hunt for the plane, which was en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing when it mysteriously turned southwards on Mar 8, no sign of it has been found.

Aviation experts had little to go on besides the satellite communications from the plane, information they have used to pinpoint a search area in the vast ocean off western Australia.

They believe the best hope of finding the plane is within the seventh arc, or the final satellite "handshake" from the plane, estimated to be when it was in descent. The ATSB said Wednesday that when all elements of the analysis so far were taken into account, it indicated that the aircraft "may be located within relatively close proximity to the arc", although further south than initially thought.

An ATSB report in June had put the priority search zone above an underwater feature named Broken Ridge, more than 2,000 kilometres west of Perth. But the new analysis puts it south of this feature, confirming earlier suggestions.

Analysis of the satellite data and end-of-flight simulations was ongoing, and this work could result in further changes to where the search was conducted, the ATSB added.

"The simulator activities involved fuel exhaustion of the right engine followed by flameout of the left engine with no control inputs," it said in an update on the flight path analysis. "This scenario resulted in the aircraft entering a descending spiralling low bank angle left turn and the aircraft entering the water in a relatively short distance after the last engine flameout."

The analysis of communications and flight data has been used to determine the first underwater areas to be scoured, with the first ship starting its scan of the ocean depths this week.

The Malaysia contracted GO Phoenix is using sophisticated sonar technology experts hope will detect large pieces of debris such as an engines or fuselage. It will be joined by two other ships in the weeks ahead.

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State moves to delist Malaysia Airlines at a cost of RM1.4 billion

Malaysia Airlines will be taken over by a state investment fund under plans announced Friday, ahead of a "complete overhaul" aimed at saving the company from oblivion.

Khazanah Nasional, which already owns 70 per cent of the flag carrier, said it intends to de-list the company, purchase all minority shares - offering 27 sen per share - and finalise a restructuring plan by the end of the month. Speculation had been mounting that Khazanah would step in and steer Malaysia Airlines (MAS) off the stock exchange to give the fund a freer hand as it works to resuscitate a carrier in crisis after the double disasters of MH370 and MH17.

Flight MH370 disappeared mysteriously in March with 239 people aboard, en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. No trace has been found and the airline was widely criticised for its handling of the crisis. On July 17, MH17 was shot down over Ukraine, with another 298 people killed.

Khazanah said all stakeholders will need to work together to save the company via a "complete overhaul" extending across "the airline's operations, business model, finances, human capital and regulatory environment". It added: "Nothing less will be required in order to revive our national airline to be profitable as a commercial entity and to serve its function as a critical national development entity."

The step, widely expected, requires approval from MAS's board. The airline said its operations would be unaffected in the interim.

FUTURE IN DOUBT

The 68-year-old flag carrier has haemorrhaged cash for years as it struggled to cope with intensifying industry competition. Its future solvency is now in peril as the twin tragedies have pummelled bookings.

MAS is burning through an estimated US$2 million a day as a result of its crumbling business and disaster-related costs.

Analysts said Khazanah will need to undertake a management purge and painful layoffs, and scrap major routes in order to restore the company's bottom line and global reputation. "It needs a new heart, a new brain. As it exists now, the airline is doomed," said Shukor Yusof, an analyst with Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics. "Each passing day is destroying its reputation and bottom line."

Earlier Friday, Malaysia Airlines had its shares suspended on the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange ahead of the Khazanah statement. Analysts had long blamed poor management, government interference, a bloated workforce, and powerful, reform-resistant employee unions for preventing the airline taking the steps need to stay competitive.

'SICK AIRLINE'

Malaysia Airlines previously had a solid safety reputation. But it lost 4.1 billion ringgit (US$1.3 billion) from 2011-13, and a further 443 million ringgit in the first quarter of this year, blaming MH370's "dramatic impact" on bookings. Analysts said taking the company private will allow Khazanah to make deep changes without shareholder interference.

But Shukor noted that previous Khazanah-sanctioned turnaround plans have failed. "I don't take comfort in Khazanah overhauling the sick airline. I am very sceptical about it," he said.

Airline experts said Khazanah should sack MAS management and bring in top-level, possibly foreign, professional managers to restore trust in the company, as Korean Airlines and Garuda Indonesia did in response to past safety-related crises. "It needs to take steps to restructure itself internally for safety considerations and procedures, and transparently communicate this to consumers. Probably new management is needed to carry all this out," said Scott Hamilton, managing director of US aerospace consultancy Leeham Co.

Costs must be slashed, possibly through staff downsizing and accelerating a pull-back from unprofitable long-haul routes that the airline has clung to for prestige, analysts add. MAS has struggled against intensifying competition from nimble, upstart budget carriers, particularly Malaysia's AirAsia.

"They may as well shut down international routes which are not making money, cut staff and sell planes. Just concentrate on the profitable domestic and key regional routes," said Mohshin Aziz, aviation analyst with Maybank. Resistance is expected from politically powerful unions. The airline employs 19,500 staff.

Ismail Nasaruddin, president of the National Union of Flight Attendants, said indications are that "a few thousand" could be laid off. "There must be an amicable solution. There must be open discussions with us on matters involving job cuts," he said.

Some have suggested a complete name change and re-branding to expunge the stigma of tragedy, but industry experts said that would accomplish little.

"Rebranding and renaming are efforts that come at significant cost, create little real value, and smooth over no part of a carrier's history," said Robert Mann, head of US-based consultancy R.W. Mann and Co.\

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Complete overhaul for crisis-hit Malaysia Airlines?

After two aviation tragedies in a matter of months, crisis-hit Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is said to be contemplating a complete overhaul, and in a deeply competitive industry where perception is everything, this may include a possible name change. However, the airline says its main concern is its staff, especially its flight crews.

When referring to their national carrier MAS, many Malaysians simply use the airline's code name MH, as MH is commonly understood to be an acronym for Malaysian Hospitality. But after the mysterious disappearance of MH370 in March and the tragic crash of MH17 four months later, the name has become associated with disaster and tragedy.

Faced with cancellations and poor ticket sales, aviation analysts are predicting MAS will last no more than five months. With the national flag carrier losing more than US$1 million a day, they say Khazanah Nasional, the government investment arm, may have to step in swiftly to stop the haemorrhage.

Mohsin Aziz, research analyst at Maybank Investment Bank, said: "It must have been a very sick airline for the past 14 years. It kept losing money. So it's definitely going to take more time before they can turn around, if ever.”

While a complete overhaul may include a leadership change, trimming of staff and reining in its powerful workers union which is resistant to reform, for now, the airline's primary focus is easing the pain of employees, especially flight crews. Morale has been badly affected with 27 crew members lost in just four months – a reality some staff are still struggling to come to terms with.

Chang Yok Lan, MAS flight attendant, said: "We just can't believe this is happening, so close to one another and it's also Malaysia Airlines." Sivakumar, another MAS flight attendant, said: "Cabin crew is family for another cabin crew compared to our family members, and this is our family because most of the time we are away – we are onboard, overseas.”

For many of the airline's staff who had been with the company for decades, what happened was beyond their comprehension but they have found strength in each other in order to continue to serve the airline they are most proud of.

Cheung Wei Ting, MAS flight attendant, said: "I think confidence plays an important part. Once we don the uniform, we know we have a duty to carry it out so we will be alright.” Chang Yok Lan said: "We have faith in our captain and we believe our safety is number one in the world. That's why we have confidence to continue to fly. "

A multi-faith prayer session was held at the airline training centre recently. The company's top management has also since disbursed US$600 to each and every MAS staff. Just like families of victims onboard its ill-fated flights, the airline and its 20,000 strong staff are also praying for closure to happen soon.

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Twin tragedies push Malaysia Airlines to the brink

Any airline would struggle with the devastating impact of losing one jet full of passengers, especially if it had already been bleeding money for years.

But losing another just months later is pushing crisis-hit Malaysia Airlines to the brink of financial collapse, airline experts said, spotlighting whether it can steer its way out of extended turmoil as once-troubled carriers such as Korean Air and Garuda Indonesia did before.

The flag carrier needs an immediate intervention from the Malaysian government investment fund that controls its purse strings, and likely deep restructuring, to survive the twin tragedies of flights MH370 and MH17, analysts added.

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) was already struggling with years of declining bookings and mounting financial losses when MH370's mysterious disappearance in March with 239 people aboard sent the carrier into free-fall.

The July 17 downing of flight MH17 over Ukraine, which killed all 298 people on board, deeply compounds those woes.

"The harrowing reality for Malaysia Airlines after MH17 is that if the government doesn't have an immediate game plan, every day that passes will contribute to its self-destruction and eventual demise," said Shukor Yusof, an analyst with Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics.

Shukor said MAS was losing $1 million to $2 million a day, and has "the bandwidth to stay afloat for about six more months based on my estimates of its cash reserves".

While the MH17 disaster was beyond the airline's control -- pro-Russia separatists in Ukraine stand accused of shooting it down with a missile -- bookings are expected to take a further significant hit, as they did in MH370's wake.

"I'm not considering going to Malaysia in the next few years. Not unless Malaysia Airlines acts or does something in the future that will allow people to feel more relaxed about travelling there," said Zhang Bing, a Chinese national in Beijing.

Jonathan Galaviz, a partner at the US-based travel and tourism consultancy Global Market Advisors, said "perception is key in the airline industry".

"Unfortunately for Malaysia Airlines, potential international customers are now going to link the brand to tragedy," said Galaviz.

The airline already has announced refunds for ticket cancellations following MH17, which Galaviz said would cost millions of dollars. Speculation is rife that state investment vehicle Khazanah Nasional, which owns 69 per cent of the airline, will delist its shares and take it private, which could set the stage for painful cost-cutting measures and other reforms.

Analysts have long blamed poor management, government interference, a bloated workforce, and powerful, reform-resistant employee unions for preventing the airline from remaining competitive.

MAS lost a combined 4.1 billion ringgit ($1.3 billion) from 2011-13. It bled a further 443 million ringgit in the first quarter of this year, blaming MH370's "dramatic impact" on bookings. Khazanah declined to comment on future plans for the airline.

But writing in Britain's Sunday Telegraph on Sunday, Hugh Dunleavy, Malaysia Airlines' commercial director, stated that the carrier "will eventually overcome this tragedy and emerge stronger".

The Malaysian government had begun to speed up its review of the airline's future -- started after the disappearance of MH370 -- following the second tragedy, Dunleavy wrote.

"There are several options on the table but all involve creating an airline fit for purpose in what is a new era for us, and other airlines. With the unwavering support we have received from the Malaysian government, we are confident of our recovery, whatever the shape of the airline in future," he wrote.

Other airlines have risen from the ashes, lessons that could be instructive for MAS, experts said.

Indonesia's state-owned Garuda Indonesia was plagued by a series of problems in the 1990s and early 2000s, including heavy debts and the murder of a prominent human rights campaigner mid-air in 2004.
Safety problems also blighted its image, including a 1997 crash on Sumatra island that killed all 234 aboard and remains Indonesia's deadliest air disaster.

Former banker Emirsyah Satar was appointed in 2005 to turn around the airline, and he undertook a massive exercise to nurse it back to health. In 2010, it was named the world's most improved airline by London-based consultancy Skytrax.

Korean Air was in trouble after a period during the 1980s and 1990s when several accidents left more than 700 people dead. It embarked on a major reform push, bringing in retired Delta Air Lines vice-president David Greenberg in 2000, who subsequently revolutionised its safety and operational practices. Korean Air is now widely respected worldwide.

Shukor said Malaysia's government and Khazanah face a "mammoth task" but that the airline could learn much from carriers that have faced similar challenges.

"Its name is now synonymous with disaster, mismanagement, lack of discipline and many negative elements," he said.

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Airline group vows action after black week for aviation

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said Friday (July 25) it will "leave nothing unturned" to boost global aviation safety after a black week for the industry that has claimed over 460 lives in three separate crashes.

"With three tragedies in such quick succession, many people will, understandably, be asking questions about aviation safety," Tony Tyler, the head of the global airline federation, said in a statement. "The greatest respect that we can pay to the memory of those involved is to leave nothing unturned in our quest to understand the cause and to take steps to ensure that it is not repeated.

"Our number one priority is safety. And despite the events of the past seven days, flying is safe," he added.

Tyler's comments came at the end of a disastrous week for the aviation industry. On July 17, a Malaysia Airlines jet crashed in rebel-held eastern Ukraine, believed downed by a surface-to-air missile, killing all 298 people on board. A Taiwanese aircraft crashed in torrential rain in southwest Taiwan on Wednesday, killing 48. On Friday, the wreckage of an Air Algerie plane bound for Algier from Burkina Faso with at least 116 people on board was found in Mali's Gossi region, a day after it went missing.

Tyler said the number of fatalities from aviation incidents this year had surpassed the 210 deaths seen last year. "But even so, getting on an aircraft is still among the safest activities that one can do," he said. "Safeguarding our customers from harm as we transport them around the world is core to the mission of the aviation industry."

IATA represents 240 airlines around the world that account for 84 per cent of total air traffic.

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Malaysian jet with 298 on board crashes in Ukraine

A Malaysian airliner carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur crashed on Thursday in strife-torn east Ukraine, with US officials saying it was shot down by a surface-to-air missile.

Ukraine's government said the jet was shot down in a "terrorist act", while comments attributed to a pro-Russia rebel chief suggested his men may have downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 by mistake, believing it was a Ukrainian army transport plane.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meanwhile said Kiev bore responsibility for the crash, which came as Ukrainian forces battle pro-Moscow insurgents in the east of the country.

As Malaysian investigators headed to the scene, the UN Security Council called an emergency session on Friday to discuss the disaster -- the second to strike the airline in just four months.

Shocked world leaders called for an international inquiry to determine the causes of a disaster with potentially far-reaching political implications, with Britain demanding a UN-led probe.

There was no sign of survivors at the crash site, where an AFP reporter saw horrific scenes, with dozens of mutilated corpses and body parts strewn through the smouldering wreck of the Boeing 777.

Charred debris stinking of kerosene stretched for kilometres across the rebel-controlled zone in the Donetsk region. A top rebel leader said his forces were prepared to agree to a short ceasefire to allow for the recovery operation.

Shell-shocked locals said the impact felt "like an earthquake" in their village of Grabove, near the Russian border.

"Those poor people," said Natalia, 36. "Do you think they understood a thing about this war in Ukraine -- even we don't understand it."

At Amsterdam's Schiphol airport, from where the ill-fated jet took off, an AFP reporter saw family members in tears, while Dutch television broadcast harrowing images of passports found in the wreck, including those of children.

Europe's flight safety body Eurocontrol said Ukrainian authorities had closed the airspace over the east of the country, after a string of countries advised their carriers to stay away.

In Amsterdam, Malaysia Airlines vice president Huib Gorter said 283 passengers and 15 crew were aboard the plane. That total included 154 Dutch nationals, 27 Australians and 23 Malaysians.

The airline said on Twitter that Ukrainian air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane at 1415 GMT, about four hours into its flight, some 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Russia-Ukraine border.

The disaster comes just months after Malaysia's Flight MH370 disappeared on March 8 with 239 on board. That plane diverted from its Kuala Lumpur to Beijing flight path and its fate remains a mystery despite a massive multinational aerial and underwater search.

Malaysia's Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Twitter he was "shocked by reports that an MH plane crashed" and announced an "immediate investigation."

Najib later told reporters a team of investigators had been dispatched to Kiev, along with a disaster assistance team.

Europe and US stock markets were sent tumbling by the crash, which escalated tensions fuelled by broadened US and EU sanctions aimed at pressuring Russia to force the rebels in Ukraine's east to end their three-month insurgency that has claimed more than 600 lives.

US President Barack Obama offered assistance to "help determine what happened and why".

Boeing also said it was ready to assist in any way.

The Kremlin said Putin and Obama -- at loggerheads over the new wave of sanctions -- had discussed the crash. Obama later called Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Najib.

Two US officials told AFP that intelligence analysts were reviewing the data to see whether the missile used to down the aircraft was launched by pro-Moscow separatists, Russian troops across the border or Ukrainian government forces.

"We are working through all the analysis," said one official.

But that there was little doubt that the plane was struck by a surface-to-air missile, the official said.

"That's what we strongly believe."

In Detroit, US Vice President Joe Biden said the plane was "apparently... and I say apparently because we don't have all the details yet... shot down. Not an accident. Blown out of the sky."

There were conflicting claims of responsibility after the shocking new development in crisis-torn Ukraine, where fighting between separatists and the Western-backed government has claimed over 600 lives.

Poroshenko's spokesman said he believed pro-Russian insurgents downed the jet.

"This incident is not a catastrophe. It is a terrorist act," the spokesman, Svyatoslav Tsegolko, said on Twitter.

The Ukrainian leader said Kiev's armed forces "did not fire at any targets in the sky" and vowed "those behind this tragedy will be brought to justice".

Rebels in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People's Republic claimed the airline split in two after being shot down by a Ukrainian jet -- which was then shot down in turn.

But a social media site attributed to the top military commander of the Donetsk People's Republic, Igor Strelkov, said the insurgents shot down an army transporter at the exact site of the Malaysia Airlines crash.

The comments suggested separatists targeted the jet in the mistaken belief it was an An-26 Ukrainian army transport plane.

"We just downed an An-26 near Torez. It is down near the Progress mine," said the VK page attributed to Strelkov.

"And here is a video confirming that a 'bird fell'," said the post, providing a link identical to that published by Ukrainian media in reports about the Malaysia Airlines jet.

Alexander Borodai, prime minister of the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic", meanwhile told AFP that separatist forces would be ready to commit to a truce for several days to allow full access to the site.

The crash came with tensions already soaring after Kiev accused Russia of downing a Ukrainian military plane on a mission over the east of the country on Wednesday, the first direct claim of a Russian attack on Ukrainian forces.

Russia's defence ministry -- which NATO claims has massed some 12,000 troops along Ukraine's porous border -- dismissed the claim as "absurd", news agencies reported.

The dramatic developments on the ground came alongside the already serious fallout from fresh US and EU sanctions slapped on Russia.

Moscow condemned the measures as "blackmail" and warned of retaliatory action against Washington, which targeted major players in Russia's finance, military and energy sectors in the sanctions.

In eastern Ukraine, fierce fighting has intensified in recent days with some 55 civilians killed since the weekend, as efforts to revive talks on a ceasefire between Kiev and the rebels falter.

Ukrainian forces made a string of major gains after Poroshenko tore up an unsuccessful truce earlier this month, but progress has slowed since rebels retreated into two major regional centres where they have pledged to fight to the end.

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Malaysia Airlines "could go private"

Khazanah Nasional, the biggest shareholder of Malaysia Airlines (MAS), has suggested privatization as an option ahead of a proposed restructuring of the loss-making carrier, reports quoted people with knowledge of the process as saying on Wednesday.

Khazanah Nasional owns 69.4% of Malaysian Airline System Bhd, the company that owns the MAS brand.

At its annual general meeting recently, MAS CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the flag carrier needed a radical overhaul to survive as it has been in the red for the past three years.

In 2013, MAS' losses rose to RM1.17 billion, nearly three times larger than its RM433 million loss recorded in 2012.

Mr Ahmad Jauhari said that the airline plans to announce a big package of changes without giving details.

"We know that there are many options to consider. But we also know that we simply cannot go on with incremental improvements.... Our only option at this point of our business evolution is sweeping change," he said in prepared remarks after the company's annual meeting on June 25.

The management of MAS will meet Malaysia's Transport Ministry to discuss the national carrier's radical recovery plan.

Transport Minister Liow Tiong Lai said MAS needed to undertake a lot of changes in order to make its business viable.

"MAS needs to transform. They are undergoing some difficult times, and they will brief me very soon," he told reporters in Sepang after the launch of AirAsia X Bhd's inaugural flight to Xian, China on Wednesday.

Mr Liow said more details would be disclosed after the meeting.

Privatization is only one of the options on the table, reports quoted people with knowledge of the process as saying.

"It's not a done deal," one of them said.

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MH370 search yet to target most likely crash site: Inmarsat

The search for Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370 is yet to target the most likely crash site after being distracted by what are now believed to be bogus signals, British company Inmarsat claimed Tuesday.

Inmarsat's scientists told the BBC's Horizon programme that they had calculated the plane's most likely flight path and a "hotspot" in the southern Indian Ocean in which it most likely came down.

The flight lost contact on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with total of 239 passengers and crew on board.

Hourly pings sent by the plane were received by Inmarsat's spacecraft, leading scientists to calculate its likely path.

Australian naval vessel Ocean Shield was dispatched to investigate, but before reaching the likely site it began to detect a signal that it believed was coming from the plane's black box, Inmarsat said.

Two months were spent searching 850 square kilometres (330 square miles) of sea bed northwest of Perth, but the source of the "pings" was not found and a submersible robot found no evidence of the airliner.

"It was by no means an unrealistic location but it was further to the northeast than our area of highest probability," Chris Ashton at Inmarsat told Horizon.

Experts from the satellite firm modelled the most likely flight path using the hourly pings and assuming a speed and heading consistent with the plane being flown by autopilot.

"We can identify a path that matches exactly with all those frequency measurements and with the timing measurements and lands on the final arc at a particular location, which then gives us a sort of a hotspot area on the final arc where we believe the most likely area is," explained Ashton.

Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC), established to manage the search, said the four acoustic "pings" picked up by the black box detector attached to Ocean Shield had to be pursued at the time.

"The four signals taken together constituted the most promising lead in the search for MH370 and it was a lead that needed to be pursued until completion so the search team could either discount or confirm the area as the final resting place of MH370," JACC said in a statement to AFP.

Australian officials agree that a linear arc produced using the satellite messages, or "handshakes", leading to the southern Indian Ocean likely represents the plane's flight path.

But the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said experts were still working to define the area to be scoured in the next phase of the search, which will plunge ocean depths of up to 6,000 feet.

"The search strategy group is continuing its analysis of satellite and aircraft performance data, along with a range of other information, to determine the area that offers the highest probability of finding the aircraft," a spokesman said.

"This is highly complex work that requires significant collaborative effort with international specialists. The revised search zone is expected to be available in the coming weeks."

Malaysia's civil aviation authority and Inmarsat last month released the raw satellite data after coming under criticism from relatives over the fruitless search.

However, its complexity has led to few independent conclusions being drawn about the likely crash site.

Malaysian Selamat Umar, whose son Mohamad Khairul Amri was on the ill-fated jetliner, questioned the motives behind the data release.

"I am not convinced at all by the data," he said. Why are they releasing it now? Before when we asked for it, they did not want to release it. What can we do with it now?" he said.

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MAS retires Boeing 737-400 from its fleet

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) retired the Boeing 737-400 passenger aircraft from its fleet Saturday night, 22 years after it entered the carrier's service in 1992.

The last 737-400 series flight touched down in Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) at 9.31pm Saturday, after taking off from the Bayan Lepas airport in Penang at 8.41pm.

It carried 85 passengers and was served by 10 cockpit and cabin crew.

Capt Wan Muzainal Wan Mahazir, 42, who piloted the aircraft, said he and his crew had fond memories of the 737-400.

"It has been a good, memorable 22-odd years that the 400 series has been servicing MAS.

"(We) still have vivid, fond memories from when we started our early days training on the 400 series, 20 years ago," he told reporters here.

He added that the 400 series would be replaced by the 737-800 series, of which there are 53 planes currently in service.

MAS chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said the 737-400 had an exemplary safety record.

"It's like the retiring of an old friend," he said, adding that MAS would be banking on the 800 series to ply the routes previously serviced by the 400 series.

Ahmad said the 800 series saves 15 per cent to 20 per cent more fuel compared to the 400 series, and could fly for five hours one-way.

Ahmad said MAS expected to see more deliveries of the 800 series this year and the next, with a total of 64 of the aircraft by year-end 2015.

MAS had eight of the 737-400 in service before they retired it.

The Boeing 737-400 entered MAS' service in May 1992, and at one point ran 54 of the aircraft, making the company the largest operator of the model outside the United States.

Commenting on the 100-day anniversary of the MH370 incident Sunday, Ahmad said the search was still underway and that efforts were ongoing, by all parties involved.

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Airlines meet in Doha under shadow of MH370 disappearance

The mystery of how Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 flew into oblivion, and the challenge of finding new ways to track aircraft, will hang over the annual conference of airlines that opens Sunday in Doha.

The loss of the Malaysia Airlines plane, with 239 people on board, was a shock to the airline industry, and clouds the event in Doha just as it also celebrates 100 years of commercial aviation.

Aircraft being produced today for the next expected boom in traffic are scarcely comparable to the biplanes which carried mail or seaplanes which later assured many long-distance routes before the age of electronic navigation.

The main purpose of this 70th annual meeting, organised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), is to enable its 240 members accounting for 84.0 per cent of global air traffic to talk about business prospects for the sector.

But the three-day get-together will open under the shadow of the Boeing 777 airliner which took off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8 bound for Beijing, but flew into danger leaving behind a trail of despair for relatives of the passengers and crew, muddle over what had happened, and mystery over where it had gone.

Various theories emerged about how and why the plane may have veered widely off course, and searches switched direction accordingly, but no debris has been found in the southern Indian Ocean where the aircraft is now believed to have looped far off course.

The drama also revealed to astonished public opinion that in an age of sophisticated civil and military radar scanning and of GPS satellite location and monitoring systems, an airliner can fly into apparent blind spots, leaving little or no trace.

This has led to calls for all airliners to be equipped at modest cost with extra emitters.

When IATA held its last annual meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2013 one of the matters raised was poor air transport safety in Africa.

This year the conference will focus on how to improve the tracking of aircraft using various technologies to monitor their movements or to ensure the transmission of flight data. It is likely to encourage various international initiatives on this.

The International Civil Aviation Organization has just formed a working group which by September is to come up with ways of tracking aircraft.

At the European Aviation Safety Agency, executive director Patrick Ky said: "This meeting of IATA is particularly important in the context of the disappearance of Flight MH370."

He said: "We are mobilised to ensure that such a tragic event doesn't happen again."

At Air France, the director responsible for operations, Alain Bassil, said: "The disappearance of Flight MH370 is a landmark for airline companies as a whole ... The annual meeting of IATA is an opportunity to advance in the procedures for looking for an aircraft and providing emergency help in the event of an accident."

The French airline, the operator of an Airbus 330 airliner which plunged into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, was slightly ahead on the issue, he said.

The company had extended the life of signals from the so-called black boxes of data carried on aircraft to 90 days to allow more time for investigators to locate a wreck.

It has also equipped its planes to automatically report their positions more frequently than most other airlines.

"Our airliners transmit their positions every ten minutes," he said, while the average at other airlines is 20 minutes.

"We have developed software so that the plane can report its position automatically, every minute, if it veers from its flight path or otherwise behaves in a way which does not correspond to that part of the flight path, such as a premature descent to a back-up airport."

IATA will also make its forecasts for profits by the sector this year.

In March, it adjusted its outlook down to US$18.7 billion (13.7 billion euros) from US$19.7 billion forecast previously, because of a rise in the price of fuel.

The place chosen for the meeting, in the Middle East where air traffic is booming, is also symbolic. This week a new airport was opened in Doha.

Last year, traffic in the region showed the biggest increase anywhere, expanding by 11.4 per cent compared with an average figure of 5.2 per cent.

In just over a decade, airlines in the Middle East have increased their share of world traffic from 4.0 per cent to 9.0 per cent. And traffic in the region is expected to grow at an average rate of 7.1 per cent a year in the next 20 years compared with 4.7 per cent for the sector globally.

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Malaysia Airlines union urges CEO to resign

Malaysia Airlines' workers' union called on Thursday for the struggling carrier's top managers to step down, piling further pressure on the beleaguered company with the fate of Flight MH370 still unknown almost three months on.

The union will urge the government not to renew the contract of MAS chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, believed to be expiring in September, said the union's executive secretary Jabbarullah Kadir.

Two other senior managers should also resign to revive the loss-making state-controlled national carrier's fortunes, he added.

"Their business plan to turn around the airline hasn't worked. For us they totally failed to carry out their duty," Jabbarullah said.

He said the union had rallied behind MAS over the jet that vanished flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 carrying 239 people but that staff morale was "very low" over the carrier's poor financial performance.

The influential union represents about half of Malaysia Airlines' 19,500 worldwide employees and was instrumental in blocking a tie-up with rival budget carrier AirAsia three years ago.

Malaysia Airlines said earlier this month that MH370's disappearance had had a "dramatic impact" on earnings.

The carrier has struggled amid intense competition, losing $1.3 billion over the past three years before the impact of MH370 is taken into account.

For this year's first quarter the airline posted a net loss of 443 million ringgit ($137 million).

It was the fifth straight quarter loss and the worst since the fourth quarter of 2011 when it recorded a net loss of 1.28 billion ringgit.

No trace of MH370 has been found despite an extensive search in the southern Indian Ocean where it is believed to have come down.

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MH370 pushes troubled Malaysia Airlines to wider Q1 loss

Malaysia Airlines announced Thursday that its net loss widened in the first quarter as the impact of flight MH370's disappearance added to the struggling carrier's woes.

The state-controlled airline said it posted a net loss of 443 million ringgit ($137 million) for the three months ending March 31, compared to a 279 million ringgit loss in the same quarter in 2013.

The result was the airline's fifth straight quarterly loss and also the worst since the fourth quarter of 2011, when it recorded a net loss of 1.28 billion ringgit.

"The results were made worse with the impact on air travel in general following the disappearance of MH370," said Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, the airline's group chief executive.

"Operations were slowed for several weeks since early March when MH370 disappeared. Marketing activities were halted out of respect for the families of those on board the Beijing-bound Boeing 777 aircraft."

The debacle over the missing plane has compounded the problems faced by Malaysia Airlines, which had already lost a combined $1.3 billion over the past three calendar years as it founders in the face of intense industry competition.

Analysts say it faces a continued grim outlook in coming years unless it is forced to undergo aggressive reform, which has been resisted by powerful employee unions and other vested interests.

In a statement on Wednesday, the airline said "a thorough review of the business plan is being undertaken and all avenues are being explored to ensure the long-term sustainability of the company."

The carrier has undertaken a series of "turnaround" plans over the years, but each has failed to stem the tide of red ink blamed by analysts on poor management, a bloated work force, powerful unions, and industry competition.

MH370 disappeared on March 8 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard. An extensive search in the Indian Ocean has found no trace of the plane.

The incident has ravaged the carrier's worldwide image and especially hurt bookings in the lucrative and previously growing China market.

Two-thirds of those on board MH370 were Chinese and the crisis has triggered fierce criticism in China of the airline and Malaysia's government.

The airline, which is 69 per cent owned by government investment company Khazanah Nasional, said the first quarter loss was due in part to rising fuel costs.

Ahmad Jauhari said the airline must find ways to boost revenue to ensure its "future survival and sustainability in a market that is not showing any signs of letting up on competition", but he offered no specifics.

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Europe aviation agency urges extending black box life

Europe's aviation safety watchdog called on Tuesday for the transmission time of tracking beacons fitted onto black box flight recorders to be extended from 30 to 90 days, a reform that may have made it easier to find the missing Malaysia Airlines plane.

The aircraft disappeared on March 8 with 239 people on board, and an intense search for the plane has been scaled back after coming up with nothing despite an air and sea hunt over 4.64 million square kilometres of the southern Indian Ocean.

Part of the problem is that the batteries to the beacons fitted onto the so-called "black box" cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder -- which are crucial in locating a plane and determining what caused it to crash -- have died, making the search even more difficult.

In a statement, the European Aviation Safety Agency urged "the extension of the transmission time of underwater locating devices (ULD) fitted on flight recorders from 30 days to 90 days".

The agency suggested that all large planes flying over oceans be equipped with a new type of ULD with a longer locating range.

The minimum recording duration of cockpit voice recorders installed on new large planes should also be increased to 20 hours from the current two hours, it added.

"The tragic flight of Malaysia Airlines MH370 demonstrates that safety can never be taken for granted," said Patrick Ky, EASA's director.

"The proposed changes are expected to increase safety by facilitating the recovery of information by safety investigation authorities."

The recommendations need to be adopted by the European Commission, and will apply to all planes and helicopters registered in the 32 EASA member states.

Australia on Monday hosted a meeting in Canberra with the transport ministers of Malaysia and China to determine the way forward in the hunt for the missing plane, which will focus on an intensified undersea search.

China is involved because two-thirds of the passengers were Chinese, while the plane is believed to have gone down in Australia's search and rescue territory.

Australian Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss admitted the hunt will take time, with the ocean bed in the prospective search zone several kilometres deep and largely unmapped, meaning specialist sonar equipment and other autonomous vehicles are needed.

He said a tender process would start soon to acquire them, but it would likely be two months before the equipment was actually in the water, while more oceanographic mapping was required to better understand where they would be looking.

A submersible Bluefin-21 has been scouring the seabed in an area where undersea transmissions were detected, believed to have come from the plane's black box flight recorders before the batteries died.

It will soon be joined by a dedicated team of vessels from Australia, Malaysia and China. An Australian P-3 Orion jet will also be available to follow up any leads.

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Malaysia Airlines jet in emergency landing after tyre bursts

A Malaysia Airlines plane with 166 people aboard was forced to make an emergency landing in Kuala Lumpur early on Monday in another blow to its safety image after the loss of flight MH370.

Flight MH192, bound for Bangalore, India, turned back to Kuala Lumpur after it was discovered that a tyre had burst on take-off, the airline said.

"As safety is of utmost priority to Malaysia Airlines, the aircraft was required to turn back to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport)," the airline said in a statement.

The plane landed safely at 1:56 am (1756 GMT), nearly four hours after it took off, the flag carrier said.

"All 159 passengers and 7 crew members on board have disembarked from the aircraft."

The airline said tyre debris discovered on the runway had led to the decision to bring the Boeing 737-800 aircraft back.

"They have landed safely -- thank God," tweeted Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein, who is overseeing Malaysia's response to MH370.

The airline is still reeling from the loss and presumed crash of flight MH370, which disappeared March 8 while en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing.

MH370 inexplicably diverted and is now believed to have crashed into the remote Indian Ocean with 239 people aboard.

Hishammuddin had tweeted that MH192 went into a holding pattern as other reports quoted officials saying it would only be allowed to land once all of its fuel had been burned off.

MH192's passengers would be accommodated in local hotels and the flight was re-timed to take off at 3:30 pm local time on Monday, the airline said.

Malaysia Airlines had previously enjoyed a good safety record, as did the Boeing 777 aircraft used for MH370.

An Australian-led multi-nation search effort is now scouring a remote area of the Indian Ocean for wreckage from flight MH370 in a bid to confirm its fate and hopefully recover the flight data recorders to determine what happened to it.

No surface debris has been found despite a month of searching, but search crews had earlier picked up signals believed to be from the beacons of the plane's data recorders.

A US Navy submersible sonar scanning device is now being deployed to look for wreckage on the seabed at depths of around 4,500 metres (15,000 feet) or more.

Nothing has yet been found and authorities have indicated they may reassess within days how to approach the extremely challenging search -- expected to be the costliest in aviation history with estimates of more than $100 million.

Malaysia's government and the airline have come under harsh criticism from Chinese relatives of MH370 passengers -- two thirds of its 227 passengers were from China -- who have alleged a bungling response and cover-up.

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MH370 search estimated to be US$100m, the costliest ever

The search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is set to be the most expensive in aviation history, analysts say, as efforts to find the aircraft deep in the Indian Ocean show no signs of slowing.

The Boeing 777 vanished on March 8 with 239 people on board, after veering dramatically off course en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and is believed to have gone down in the sea off Australia.

Australia, which is leading the search in a remote patch of water described as "unknown to man", has not put a figure on spending, but Malaysia has warned that costs will be "huge".

"When we look at salvaging (wreckage) at a depth of 4.5 kilometres, no military out there has the capacity to do it," Acting Transport and Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said Thursday.

"We have to look at contractors, and the cost of that will be huge."

Ravikumar Madavaram, an aviation expert at Frost & Sullivan Asia Pacific, said Malaysia, Australia and China, which had the most nationals onboard the flight, were the biggest spenders and estimated the total cost up to now at about US$100 million.

"It's difficult to say how much is the cost of this operation... but, yes, this is definitely the biggest operation ever (in aviation history).

"In terms of costs this would be the highest," he told AFP.

In the first month of the search -- in which the South China Sea and Malacca Strait were also scoured by the US, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam -- the Pentagon said the United States military had committed US$7.3 million to efforts to find the plane.

Meanwhile the Indian Ocean search, in which assets have also been deployed by Australia, Britain, China, South Korea, Japan and New Zealand, has failed to find anything conclusive.

Hopes rest on a torpedo-shaped US Navy submersible, which is searching the ocean floor at depths of more than 4,500 metres in the vicinity of where four signals believed to have come from black box recorders were detected.

David Gleave, an aviation safety researcher at Britain's Loughborough University, said the costs "will be of the order of a hundred million dollars by the time we're finished, if we have found it (the plane) now".

But he said the longer it took to find any wreckage, the more costs would mount because scanning the vast ocean floor "will take a lot of money because you can only search about 50 square kilometres a day".

Salvaging anything would also depend on how deep the ocean is at the crash point and how dispersed the wreckage, with weather and politics also complicating factors, he said.

The fate of MH370 has drawn parallels with the hunt for Air France Flight 447 which plunged into the Atlantic in 2009.

The two-year operation to recover its black box, which involved assets from France, Brazil and the US, has been estimated to have cost 80-100 million euros, according to figures cited by France's Investigation and Analysis Bureau (BEA).

Australia's Joint Agency Coordination Centre says its main focus is still on finding flight MH370.

"It is one of the most difficult searches ever undertaken and could take some time," JACC said in a statement to AFP.

"The cost of the search is significant. The exact figure has not yet been calculated.

"The cost is being shared by our international partners who have contributed their people and military and civilian assets to help with the search."

As the search continues, all international partners are meeting their own costs. But governments and militaries will need to consider the broader cost implications of the search down the track, said Kym Bergmann, editor of Asia-Pacific Defence Reporter.

"I don't think that the Australians would be getting any change at all out of A$1 million day," he told AFP.

Bergman said it would likely be the most expensive aviation search given how long it had already dragged on.

"It must be starting to worry military planners," he said, adding that any decision to scale back would cause heartache to the families involved.

Malaysia-based Madavaram agreed, saying at present it was still "politically insensitive" to cut spending.

"I think they will continue one or two months irrespective of the costs," he said. "But then if nothing is found, it will become a wild goose chase, and people will start questioning it.”

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Electrical problems divert Malaysia Airlines plane to HK

A Malaysia Airlines flight from Kuala Lumpur to Seoul had to divert to Hong Kong early Monday due to electrical problems, the carrier said, adding to the flag-carrier's headaches as it grapples with its missing plane crisis.

Flight MH066 was "diverted to Hong Kong due to an inoperative aircraft generator which supplies normal electrical power" on the Airbus A330-300, the airline said in a statement.

"However, electrical power continued to be supplied by the Auxiliary Power Unit," the company said, giving no further details on the equipment problem.

It said the aircraft landed in Hong Kong "uneventfully" and that all 271 passengers had been transferred to other carriers.

A Hong Kong Airport Authority spokeswoman said the aircraft touched down without incident at about 3:00 am.

The plane had departed from Kuala Lumpur at 11:37 pm (1537 GMT) on Sunday and was scheduled to arrive at Seoul's Incheon airport at 6:50 am, South Korean time.

As a result of the diversion, the return flight MH067 from Incheon to Kuala Lumpur was cancelled and passengers were transferred to other carriers as well as subsequent Malaysia Airlines flights to Kuala Lumpur.

On March 8, Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared off civilian radar just an hour into its journey to Beijing, sparking an unprecedented international search across huge swathes of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea.

Malaysia has said the plane -- with 239 people aboard -- veered inexplicably off of its intended route in an apparently deliberate act.

Aircraft and ships from several nations have picked up a suspected trail in the southern Indian Ocean, where large pieces of floating debris have been spotted but not yet retrieved to determine if they are from MH370.

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AirAsia boss lets rip at Malaysian Airlines, aviation authorities

Flamboyant AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes savaged state-backed flag carrier Malaysian Airlines (MAS) and the nation's aviation authorities on Wednesday, accusing them of mismanagement that was harming the travelling public.

The budget airline mogul posted the comments on his Twitter feed a day after fierce rival MAS announced it had lost a whopping 1.17 billion ringgit ($355 million) in 2013.

"AirAsia Allstars, take a bow. Malaysia Airlines lost over a billion," Fernandes tweeted.

"So much money wasted. If people were more efficient Malaysians would spend less on travel."

Fernandes bought ailing AirAsia in 2001, quickly turning it around with his no-frills, low-fare formula.

AirAsia has put severe pressure on inefficient MAS, which analysts say is hampered by poor management, bloated and demanding unions and government interference.

On Tuesday, MAS also reported its fourth straight quarterly loss and warned of a "challenging" year ahead.

The airline has bled money in recent years and announced a series of turnaround plans, but the poor earnings have continued.

"I wonder if it's fair that Malaysia Airlines can lose so much money and protect its market share. Can only do that with taxpayers money," Fernandes tweeted.

The outspoken Fernandes also took aim at Malaysian regulators, implying they were seeking to hinder MAS' competition.

"Imagine how many jobs AirAsia could have created if (there was) effective regulation. We have done amazing. Unbelievable. Despite all the roadblocks," he said.

The two airlines briefly buried the hatchet in 2011, when Fernandes agreed to a strategic tie-up aimed at helping to revive struggling MAS.

The deal was called off just months later, with Fernandes faulting "massive" MAS union resistance to reform and hinting at deep problems in the rival airline.

AirAsia is currently at odds with government-controlled airport operator Malaysian Airport Holdings Berhad (MAHB) over a two-year delay and cost overruns in the construction of a new budget terminal outside the capital Kuala Lumpur.

AirAsia is set to be the main presence at the facility. Its current opening date is May 2 but recent media reports have suggested it may yet be pushed back again.

Fernandes said MAHB "spends double what it could".

AirAsia, which has some of the lowest unit costs in the world, has raked in business awards and accolades over the years, while expanding aggressively.

AirAsia reported its net profit fell by $11 million in the third quarter of 2013, mostly on foreign-exchange movements. It will report full-year results at the end of February.

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Malaysian flights affected by haze

Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has advised its passengers on last-minute flight cancellation and retiming due to the current haze situation.

Its operations director, Izham Ismail, said specific stations were under close watch for possible closure or interruption of certain airports including KL International Airport (KLIA).

“MAS is working closely with the airport authorities in monitoring the situation and will adjust our flight operations into and out of the affected airports when necessary.”

MAS has formed a haze secretariat to monitor the situation on an hourly basis and provide updates three times daily.

The airline also encouraged passengers to check the status of their flights at www.malaysiaairlines.com or call prior to leaving for the airport and for updates.

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That is pretty bad visuals judging by the picture above. The haze has now turned to create havoc in Malaysia after doing it to Singapore the previous week.

Malaysia Airlines to buy 36 turboprop planes

Malaysia Airlines on Tuesday said it will buy 36 new ATR turboprop aircraft for 3.0 billion ringgit ($916 million) as it looks to further expand its regional and domestic networks.

Of the 36 ATR-72-600 planes, the carrier said 20 will go to subsidiary Firefly, which is fast expanding its lucrative routes, while 16 are for MASwings which flies to Sarawak and Sabah on Borneo island.

The purchase comes after struggling flag carrier Malaysia Airlines in November said it had swung back to a profit, ending six straight quarterly losses after slashing unprofitable routes to cut costs.

Malaysia Airlines group CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said Firefly is expected to rapidly expand within the next five years, thanks to growing demand in Asia.

"The additional aircraft will be utilised to continue growing Firefly's network and providing customers with more travel options," said Ahmad Jauhari, who signed the deal with Filippo Bagnato, chief executive of French-Italian firm ATR.

The aircraft are slated to be delivered from the end of the second quarter of 2013.

Launched in April 2007, Firefly provides connections to various points within Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia's Sumatra.

Firefly currently has 12 ATR-72-500 aircraft while MASwings operates 10 similar aircraft.

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After news came from ATR that Asia has an increasing demand for turboprop planes, MAS decided to purchase 36 of it. But don't worry, they're not using it in their main fleet, it will still be the A380 that you will fly in, in the KL-London route.

Airbus A380 poised to take MAS to new heights

MALAYSIA Airlines (MAS) is optimistic of maintaining the high load factor for London-Kuala Lumpur (KL) route although it is now deploying a bigger aircraft, the A380, for the sector amid the gloomy eurozone's economic outlook.

MAS regional senior vice-president for the UK and Europe (commercial) Huib Gorter said currently, the load factor within the route is in the "high 80" per cent.

He sees 2013 as an excellent year for MAS in Europe as the A380 aircraft will enhance MAS brand.

"Despite bigger aircraft, we expect the load factor in 2013 to be maintained at high 80 per cent," Gorter told visiting media from Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei here two weeks ago.

The media visit was organised by MAS in conjunction with the start of its double daily A380 aircraft flight for London-KL-London route, effective November 24. With the existing four A380s, MAS is now flying two flights a day for the route, with a capacity of 494 seats per flight.

With the introduction of the A380 services, MAS has now ceased the 359-seater B747-400 flight operations between Kuala Lumpur and London.

Gorter said when MAS introduced the A380 into its fleet in July this year, there was 22 per cent rise in passenger load from London to KL. MAS is the only direct flight servicing London-KL route.

He said the UK is MAS biggest market in Europe, commanding 35 per cent of total passengers, followed by France (20 per cent), Holland and Germany (15 per cent each) and the rest, other European countries

The UK is also where most of Malaysian students are studying. There are currently about 12,000 Malaysian students in the UK.

Gorter said MAS passengers from Europe comprise holidaymakers, who make up 60 per cent of the total, followed by business travellers (18 per cent), those visiting family, friends and relatives (12 per cent) and students (five per cent).

"We have strategic partnership with Tourism Malaysia as the government wants to increase travellers to Malaysia," he said.

Gorter added that MAS, being a network carrier with a hub in Kuala Lumpur, also helps tourist arrivals in Malaysia.

Meanwhile, MAS sales manager for the UK (southern region) Anton Grossmann expects MAS to weather the current economic situation in the UK.

"The economic outlook is not good in the UK as the government is talking about the increase in VAT (value added tax) from 20 per cent to 25 per cent, so there'll be less disposable income.

"But, we have to be optimistic, we have good product. The UK market is very resilient," said Grossmann, who was also at the media briefing.

The A380 fleet will also improve MAS weekly seat capacity by 37 per cent in both directions of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport-London Heathrow route. The A380 services will offer 6,916 seats weekly compared with 5,026 seats offered through the earlier double daily B747-400 operations, allowing more passengers to travel on the super jumbo aircraft.

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The A380 came a tad bit too late for MAS but at least it's making waves now. Replacing the aging B747, it now carries the passenger in KL to London with 6,916 seats weekly. Being the only carrier in KL airport providing a direct route to London, this is definitely a win-win situation. 

MAS has made 6 orders for the A380 with 4 already in service now. The final 2 will arrive by the first quarter of 2013.