Malaysia Airlines aircrafts taxi on the runway at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in Sepang outside Kuala Lumpur May 13, 2014. — Reuters pic

KUALA LUMPUR, MAY 15 — The government will not bail out Malaysia Airlines (MAS) acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein said today as the flag carrier sunk deeper into the red following the mysterious disappearance of its jetliner two months ago.

MAS posted a net loss of RM443.4 million in the first quarter this year, compared to a net loss of RM278.8 million in the same period last year, making it the airlines’ worst quarterly showing in the last two years.

“Is the Malaysian government offering an assistance to MAS? No,” Hishammuddin told a news conference on Flight MH370, missing since March 8.

“The tragic MH370 incident had a dramatic impact on the traditionally weak first quarter performance,” said MAS, in a statement to the Malaysia stock exchange today.

The airline added that it has been riddled with high cancellation and faced a drop in long-haul flights after MH370 disappeared on March 8.

Ticket sales in China fell by 60 per cent in March, MAS said, as a significant portion of passengers travelling on flight MH370 were Chinese.

MAS has steadily recording a loss for the past three years due to ballooning cost and increasing competition.

The jetliner carrying 239 people went missing more than two months ago after leaving Malaysian shores, resulting in the largest international search mission the world has seen in the history of aviation disasters.

Satellite and radar data have indicated that the jetliner went down in the wild waters of the Indian Ocean, thousands of miles away from the plane’s original flight path to Beijing.

Despite a massive international search in the Indian Ocean, no trace of the missing Boeing 777 has been found.