A Dutch cyclist who was scheduled to fly on both Malaysia Airlines flights escaped an unfortunate fate after changing his ticket for each flight at the last minute.

Maarten de Jonge was supposed to fly on both Flight MH370, which has yet to be found after disappearing over the Indian Ocean in March, and MH17, which was shot down over Ukraine this week, reports Netherlands public broadcaster RTV Oost.

In March, the cyclist with Malaysia's Terengganu Cycling Team was scheduled to take the flight departing from Kuala Lumpur to compete in a race in Taiwan, but switched to another flight to avoid having a stopover.

He was set to take the most recent flight to return to Asia from a recent race in the Netherlands, but changed his flight for a later one this weekend.