Explainer: Malaysia Airlines' survival in doubt as political support dims

Malaysia Airlines is struggling to make payments owed to creditors and lessors amid the coronavirus pandemic that has forced it to slash its operations. The national airline, which restructured after two deadly crashes in 2014, has a new plan involving big discounts from creditors, but unlike last time the cash-strapped government is unwilling to bail it out. The airline has been loss-making for about a decade. Losses were aggravated by two tragedies in 2014 - the mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 and the shooting down of flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine. In the price-sensitive domestic market, it faced rising competition from low-cost rivals. In the international market, cashed-up Gulf carriers Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways used the heft of their global networks to encroach on lucrative long-haul routes. Budget rival AirAsia X, now itself in financial trouble, offered discounted fares on routes within Asia. State fund Khazanah Nasional became the sole shareholder of its parent company and delisted it in 2014 as part of a $1.5b restructuring that saw its staff numbers cut by 6,000, or about 30%. It targeted a return to profit in three years, but it has not been profitable yet. Explainer has more background.<br/>