KUALA LUMPUR, April 21 — Beset by tragedy when it was already struggling, flag carrier Malaysia Airlines could soon be left with few options beyond bankruptcy or finding a new owner in order to keep itself afloat, according to business analysts.

This is the second time in recent months that bankruptcy has been bandied as a way out for the ailing airline that bled nearly RM4 billion over the past three years.

"There are not many options left for MAS," the Business Times quoted an unnamed aviation industry source in a report.  

The previous call for MAS to take this particular route had been rejected, due primarily to the possible loss of national pride in such a move.

Despite the limitations, however, Maybank Investment Bank suggested that bankruptcy was not the only alternative.

MAS could opt to go private, with the investment bank noting that its depressed share prices made the strategy more feasible.

The exercise would cost owners Khazanah Nasional an estimated RM1.15 billion based on the airline’s stock value now.

It further suggested that MAS could be broken up to keep the airline business apart from the non-passenger travel units, before whittling this down further by hiving off the loss-making concerns.

"We assume that Firefly, MAS Engineering and MAS Airport Terminal Services will be listed individually, and MAS's shareholdings in Brahim and KL Aviation Fuel Services will be sold," Maybank said in a note last week.

The second option, the bank noted, could Khazanah Nasional earn around RM1.25 billion for its majority stake in MAS.

In February, the Business Times in Singapore suggested that bankruptcy was the only option for MAS to rid itself of “legacy issues” of lopsided procurements and over-staffing.

Since then, the airline has encountered a tragedy of an “unprecedented” scale, losing a Boeing 777-200ER with 239 people on board in March.

Despite a multi-national search for Flight MH370 now concentrated in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia, the plane remains missing.

MAS last month conceded that the incident has taken a toll on its business, with chief executive Ahmad Jauhari Yahya saying it could take as much as half a year for the already-struggling airline to get back on track.

Early this morning, MAS experienced yet another blow to its once-sterling safety image when a Bangalore-bound Boeing 737 was forced to abort its flight and attempt repeated landings at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport after it suffered a tyre blowout during takeoff.

It did so safely and without any casualties.

This February, MAS announced a worse-than-expected fourth quarter result for 2013 that saw it rack up another RM343 million in losses, putting the airline RM1.17 billion in the red for the entirety of 2013.

In 2011, it chalked up a record loss of RM2.5 billion.

MAS shares traded for 22 sen when Bursa Malaysia opened this morning, down 1 sen from its closing price on Friday.