(Continued from page 31)

spokesman Qin Gang told reporters in Beijing. "We will not give it up as long as there's still a shred of hope."
• The mother of passenger Zou Jingsheng, who would only give her name as Zou, wept and spoke haltingly about her missing son while staying at a hotel near the Beijing airport. She expressed frustration with the airline and the Malaysian government over their handling of the case.
• "I want to talk more, but all this is very stressful, and after all it is my son's life that I am concerned about. I just want to know where he is, and wish he is safe and alive," she said.
• ___

• HONG KONG (AP) -- Within an industry notorious for impoverishing shareholders and irking customers, Malaysia Airlines has stood out for its years of restructurings and losses. The company now has global recognition of a far more unfavorable kind after one of its jets disappeared four days ago with 239 people aboard.
• There has been no suggestion that the unrelenting financial pressures faced by the airline and its 19,000 employees somehow played a role in the disappearance of flight MH370 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. But the revelation this week that the jet's co-pilot allowed two female passengers to ride in the cockpit for the duration of a flight two years ago has invited scrutiny of the professionalism of top-level staff.
• Among Asian carriers, Malaysia Airlines has built a reputation for high-standard service and safety since being founded in 1937, bagging an array of industry awards in recent years for its food, cabin crew and overall service. Its most recent fatal incident was nearly two decades ago, when one of its planes crashed near the Malaysian city of Tawau, killing 34.
• Yet the accolades in the past decade have not been sufficient to halt the ebb of customers and revenue to low-cost competitors, mostly notably to AirAsia founded in 2001 by Malaysian businessman Tony Fernandes. The nimbler discount competitors have expanded rapidly, while Malaysia Airlines has been like a supertanker, slow to change direction. State ownership and a powerful union have impeded efforts to adapt.
• Travelers are likely to "shun" the airline in reaction to "an incident of such proportion" as a jet vanishing, said Shukor Yusof, aviation analyst at S&P Capital IQ, a di

(Continued on page 33)