SEPANG (July 10): Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said Malaysia Airlines Bhd was expected to report profit in 2018 as the company's five-year restructuring was on track.

Najib said Malaysia Airlines CEO Peter Bellew had told him (Najib) that the company was expected to be in the black during the year.

"I can confirm that through my discussions with Peter Bellew that he expects Malaysia Airlines to be in the black, hopefully next year.

"Today, a feeling of pride has returned to the stakeholders of Malaysia Airlines and I believe that the feeling of self-esteem has returned to Malaysia Airlines. The five-year restructuring plan has started to bear fruit. We focused on stabilising Malaysia Airlines' finances for the first phase of the plan, which has been achieved," Najib said.

Najib said this in his speech at Malaysia Aviation Group Bhd's Hari Raya event here today. The event included the unveiling of the group's first Negaraku aircraft livery.

Malaysian Government-owned investment arm Khazanah Nasional Bhd via Malaysia Aviation Group owns 100% of Malaysia Airlines.

Khazanah had in 2014 privatised Malaysia Airlines to facilitate the airline's restructuring. Malaysia Airlines was known as Malaysian Airline System Bhd then.

Malaysian Airline System was delisted from Bursa Malaysia on Dec 31, 2014.

Prior to the delisting, Malaysian Airline System's latest reported net loss stood at RM1.33 billion in the nine months ended Sept 30, 2014 versus a net loss of RM830.25 million a year earlier, according to Malaysian Airline System's statement to Bursa Malaysia. Malaysian Airline System said revenue fell to RM10.57 billion from RM11.22 billion.

Today, Najib said as the first phase of Malaysia Airlines' restructuring had been completed, the focus is now on the second phase which relates to the airline's branding and product differentiation.

Najib said the second phase included the addition of 11 new routes to China. He said he believed Malaysia Airlines would be able to restore its five-star Skytrax rating by 2018.

"I will make sure that Malaysia Airlines recovers and become one of the leading airlines in the world," he said.