KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – Key dates in the history of ***************** from its start as a one route ******* until its almost unfathomable double passenger *** disasters in 2014.

1937 _ Malayan Airways Ltd., the forerunner of *****************, is formed to provide flights between Penang in Malaya and Singapore, both part of the British ****** at the time.

1963 _ A now independent Malaysia absorbs neighbouring British colonies and the national carrier becomes ****************** Ltd.

1972 _ The carrier is renamed Malaysian ******* System and later branded as *****************.

2012 _ Wins “*****’s Best Crew” award from ******* rating firm Skytrax, the 7th time it has claimed that industry accolade since 2001.

2013 _ Losing ground to budget ******* rivals, ****** at ***************** balloon to 1.17 billion ringgit ($363 million), nearly three times larger than its 433 million ringgit loss in 2012.

March 8, 2014 _ ***************** Flight 370 severs contact with air traffic control en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and veers far of course with 239 people on board; searchers have still not located the plane which is believed to have crashed into the southern Atlantic Ocean.

March 10 _ Shares of ***************** plunge 20 per cent when stock market trading opens on the Monday after Flight 370 vanished.

May 29 _ The ***************** union calls for the resignation of CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya, saying new management is needed to revive the beleaguered flag carrier.

June 25 _ CEO Ahmad Jauhari Yahya says the *******’s business is seeing a “significant recovery” from the Flight 370 tragedy but must undergo radical changes to survive.

July 17 _ ***************** ********* is blasted out of the sky over an area of ******* controlled by pro-Russian ******, ******* all 298 people on board.

July 18 _ ***************** shares drop 14 per cent. Analysts estimate the ******* is losing $1.6 million a day and won’t survive a year without a bailout.

Early Aug _ ***************** says passengers dropped 11 per cent in July compared with a year earlier.

Aug 29 _ Malaysia’s state investment fund, which owns 69 per cent of *****************, says 30 per cent of the *******’s 20,000 staff will be cut as part of a $1.9 billion overhaul to return the ******* to profit by 2017.