The Australian government will call off the search for MH370 later this year when the funding is exhausted and the missing aircraft still hasn't been found, says Emirates president Tim Clark, who likened the effort to a "goose chase".

Mr Clark, whose airline is the world's biggest operator of Boeing 777s – the type of aircraft lost by Malaysia Airlines in March 2014 – said the disappearance would then go into the annals of the history of aviation.

Tim Clark believes 'somebody knows more about this than they are prepared to say'. Credit:Nic Walker

"I think it is only a question of time before the search is abandoned," he said on the sidelines of the International Air Transport Association annual meeting in Miami on Tuesday. "Do we have solutions? Do we have explanations? Cause? Reasons? No. It has sent us down a goose chase. It will be an Amelia Earhart repetition."

The search for the aircraft, thought to be in the Southern Ocean offshore from Western Australia, is still ongoing but it is being hampered by bad weather. In the latest operational update on June 3, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said all three search vessels in the area were forced to temporary halt the effort on May 30 as a result of poor weather.