Malaysia Airlines System Employees Union (MASEU) said almost 200 of its employees have resigned after the MH370 and MH17 tragedies.

MASEU secretary-general Abdul Malek Ariff was quoted by The Edge Financial Daily that the airliner only has about 3,000 cabin crew members.

“Some are now afraid to fly. There is nothing we can do about this. They have developed some kind of fear and we hope that over time, they will be back to normal,” he was quoted by the daily.

He said the resignations had forced others to put in a 12-hour-shift daily - eight compulsory hours and four hours for overtime.

“We don’t have a choice. Recruitment for new staff has been very slow and we have to depend on our existing crew to keep flying," he told the daily.

He said the early retirement option is also no longer available because of the acute shortage.

It was earlier rumoured that 500 staff have resigned from MAS following the double tragedy, but this has been denied by Malaysia Airlines System Bhd (MAS).

In a statement to The Edge Financial Daily, the airliner declared that the total number of resignations was 186 from January until July this year.

It said that ‘following the MH17 incident, there was a spike in crew resignations, but the number has now decreased to routinely expected levels.

“Many cited family pressure as the reason for their resignation due to the double tragedies. At present the resignation rate at MAS is less than 5% which is way below the industry norm.’