A Malaysian official says the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 by a US company will likely end in June. Families of passengers on the flight will mark the fourth anniversary of the plane's disappearance March 8 with renewed hope that the aviation mystery will be solved. Malaysia signed a "no cure, no fee" deal with Texas-based Ocean Infinity in January to resume the hunt for the plane, a year after the official search in the southern Indian Ocean by Australia, Malaysia and China was called off. Ocean Infinity started the search Jan 22 and has 90 search days to look for the plane. Malaysia's civil aviation chief, Azharuddin Abdul Rahman, said the 90-day term will spread over a few months because the search vessel has to refuel in Australia and bad weather could be a factor. <br/>
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Malaysia Airlines has announced that it will continue focusing on driving passenger yield improvement this year by growing its premium passenger segments such as large and small corporations. Among the list of initiatives MAS has taken to improve the experience on board are the new in-flight entertainment systems aboard its flagship A350 aircraft, which includes refreshed first and business class amenity pouches. It also relaunched Temptations, its in-flight shopping. Its domestic and regional lounge at Kuala Lumpur International reopened its doors in Q4 of last year to include a live cooking station and reflects the Baba Nyonya heritage. The news comes after MAS said last week that it will restructure to strengthen operations as part of its 5-year Malaysia Airlines Recovery Plan. <br/>
American Airlines is keeping the pressure on Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to rethink the gate allocation plan he and Chicago aviation commissioner Ginger Evans announced last week that is tied to an US$8.5b O'Hare expansion. The plan as it now stands would award 5 of 8 gates in Terminal 2 at O'Hare to United Airlines. American has balked at that plan, saying a last-minute deal was cut between the city and United to award those 5 gates to United unilaterally with no input from American. To further buttress American's argument that a fair allocation of gates is key to American's long-term plan at O'Hare, American released a podcast about the "gate gap" that has caused the airport's two largest tenants, American and United, to start hurling invective at each other while city officials refuse to clarify exactly how they made the gate allocation. <br/>
Qantas has been accused of “overstepping the mark” after telling staff to avoid “gender inappropriate” terms such as husband, wife, mum and dad. An information package was sent out to airline employees by People and Culture group executive Lesley Grant ahead of the company’s Spirit of Inclusion month, according to The Daily Telegraph. In the booklet, staff are advised to stop using certain words that people may take offence to, particularly those in the LGBTI community. Former prime minister Tony Abbott said that it was “political correctness that’s gone way over the top”. “Frankly if companies like Qantas want to give their customers a better deal, they can scrap all these inclusion units, just scrap them, save the money because it’s just rubbish this idea that we need a corporate thought police,” Abbott said. <br/>