MH370: Code share partner China Southern Airlines will help families of passengers - MAS CEO

He said MAS, however, shouldered a heavier burden because the missing aircraft belonged to the airline.

"We have discussed with China Southern Airlines. As this is our aircraft, the responsibility is more on us. They are only our code share partner," he told a media conference on the latest developments on the search mission for MH370 here today.

Also present were acting Transport Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Tun Hussein and Department of Civil Aviation director-general Datuk Azharuddin Abdul Rahman.

Flight MH370 was also marketed as Flight CZ748 by China Southern Airlines and there were passengers (on board) holding the Chinese airline company's tickets.

On another matter, Ahmad Jauhari said MAS had yet to receive any information that some of the families of the missing passengers wanted to file suits.

He said MAS would give a response after finding out the form of demands that would be made.

"We have not been notified...we have to know what is the suit filed against us before we can respond," he said.

Prior to this, the media reported that several families of passengers of MH370 had hired the services of legal firms to sue MAS.

Flight MH370, carrying 227 passengers including 152 China nationals and 12 crew, left the KL International Airport at 12.41 am on March 8 and disappeared from radar screens about an hour later while over the South China Sea. It was to have landed in Beijing at 6.30 am on the same day.

A multinational search was mounted for the aircraft, first in the South China Sea and then, after it was learned that the plane had veered off course, along two corridors - the northern corridor stretching from the border of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to northern Thailand and the southern corridor, from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.

Following an unprecedented type of analysis of satellite data, United Kingdom satellite telecommunications company Inmarsat and the UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) concluded that Flight MH370 flew along the southern corridor and that its last position was in the middle of the Indian Ocean, west of Perth, Australia.