The year 2014 is well on its way to being Malaysia Airlines' annus horribilis. Flight 17, shot down last week over eastern Ukraine, is the second Boeing 777 the airline has lost in the last five months, after MH370 disappeared, it's believed, somewhere over the Indian Ocean.
But even before the double calamity, Malaysia's national carrier was struggling to adapt to momentous shifts in Asia's aviation industry.
It was expected to announce a restructuring plan even before MH17 was shot down. That plan is expected very soon. Other than bankruptcy or privatization, analysts say, the airline doesn't have many options.
"To recover from a double incident like this, it's unprecedented in the history of aviation," says Mohshin Aziz, an aviation analyst at Maybank Investment Bank.
Mohshin figures that Malaysia Airlines is losing about $1.7 million a day, and he expects that figure to rise after the recent plane crash.
"So if there were a recovery, suffice it to say it will take a substantial amount of time, perhaps a year, two, maybe more," he says. "The unfortunate thing is Malaysia Airlines doesn't have the balance sheet to sustain anything beyond a year."
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