Search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 was a scheduled flight in the early morning hours of 8 March 2014 from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to Beijing, China—one of two daily flights operated by Malaysia Airlines from its hub at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) to Beijing Capital International Airport. Flight 370 was scheduled to depart at 00:35 local time (MYT; ) and arrive at 06:30 local time (CST; UTC+08:00). At 00:41 MYT, Flight 370 took off with 239 persons aboard—two pilots, ten cabin crew, and 227 passengers (152 of whom were Chinese citizens). Flight 370 was cleared by air traffic control to proceed
Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Malaysia Airlines was struggling to cut costs to compete with a wave of new, low-cost carriers in the region. In the previous three years, Malaysia Airlines had booked losses of: RM1.17 billion (US$356 million) in 2013, RM433 million in 2012, and RM2.5 billion in 2011. Malaysia Airlines lost RM443.4 million (US$137.4 million) in the first quarter of 2014 (January–March). The second quarter—the first full quarter in the aftermath of Flight 370's disappearance—saw a loss of RM307.04 million (US$97.6 million), which represented a 75-percent increase over losses from the second quarter of 2013. Industry analysts expected Malaysia Airlines to lose further