The fate of Malaysia's national carrier, Malaysia Airlines or MAS, is still up in the air.

On March 12, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that the airline had become "unsustainable" and that the government was looking at a number of options to handle it.

These included refinancing it, selling it off, or even shutting it down.

Mahathir's comments supposedly misconstrued

However, on March 13, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said that Mahathir's comments had been "misconstrued".

Lim said that Malaysia Airlines would not be closed down.

He added that Malaysia Airlines was their "pride and joy", and that he wanted to reassure the employees that it would not be closed down.

But on March 20, there was yet another twist.

Sale is still an option

The Malay Mail reported that Mahathir told reporters while in Parliament that selling the airline was still an option.

He revealed that there were a number of local and foreign parties who were interested in purchasing it.

Mahathir said:

"We can see that even though a foreigner had been selected to manage the airliner, MAS had still faced losses. Therefore, one of the ways (to save MAS) is by selling."

Until the next twist.

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