Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB; Malay: Penerbangan Malaysia Berhad), formerly known as Malaysian Airline System (MAS; Sistem Penerbangan Malaysia), and branded as Malaysia Airlines, is the flag carrier of Malaysia and a member of the Oneworld airline alliance. (The MAS initials are still being kept by subsidiaries MASkargo and MASwings.) The company headquarters are at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. In August 2014, the Malaysian government's sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional—which then owned 69.37% of the airline—announced its intention to purchase the remaining ownership from minority shareholders and delist the airline from Malaysia's stock exchange, thereby renationalising the airline. It operates primarily from its main hub Kuala Lumpur International Airport to destinations throughout Asia, Oceania and Europe, as well as its secondary hub Kota Kinabalu International Airport to Taipei and Tokyo (Narita).
Malaysia Airlines owns two subsidiary airlines: Firefly and MASwings. Firefly operates scheduled flights from its two home bases Penang International Airport and Subang International Airport. The airline focuses on tertiary cities. MASwings focuses on inter-Borneo flights. Malaysia Airlines has a freighter fleet operated by sister company MASkargo, which manages freighter flights and aircraft cargo-hold capacity for all Malaysia Airlines' passenger flights.
Malaysia Airlines traces its history to Malayan Airways Limited, which was founded in Singapore in the 1930s and flew its first commercial flight in 1947. It was then renamed as Malaysian Airways after the formation of the independent country, Malaysia, in 1963. In 1966, after the separation of Singapore, the airline was renamed Malaysia–Singapore Airlines (MSA), before its assets were divided in 1972 to permanently form two separate and distinct national airlines—Malaysian Airline System (MAS, since renamed as Malaysia Airlines) and Singapore Airlines (SIA).Despite numerous awards from the aviation industry in the 2000s and early 2010s, the airline struggled to cut costs to cope with the rise of low-cost carriers (LCCs) in the region since the early 2000s. In 2013, the airline initiated a turnaround plan after large losses beginning in 2011 and cut routes to unprofitable long-haul destinations, such as Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and South Africa. That same year, Malaysia Airlines also began an internal restructuring and intended to sell units such as engineering and pilot training. From 2014 to 2015, the airline declared bankruptcy and was renationalised by the government under a new entity, which involved transferring all operations, including assets and liabilities as well as downsizing the airline.