Malaysia Airlines said on Thursday it was retiring the flight codes MH370 and MH371 out of respect for the passengers and crew of the Boeing 777-200 that went missing on its way to Beijing five days ago.
The flag carrier said effective from March 15, the new flight codes will be MH318 for the Kuala Lumpur-Beijing flight and MH319 for the Beijing-Kuala Lumpur flight.
“There are no changes to the frequency of our services and we will continue to operate double daily services to Beijing,” the company said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of our colleagues and passengers of MH370.” It is not uncommon for airlines to retire the flight codes on routes where there has been a crash or other accident.
MH370 was carrying 239 passengers and crew when it vanished from the radar on March 8 more than one hour after taking off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
The search for the plane has involved nearly 100 ships and aircraft from a dozen countries.