MH370 - Number of China Southern Airlines ticket holders? Who is responsible for their customers?

I buy a ticket from the Malaysian Airlines(MAS), and when I get to the airport, I check-in at the MAS Counter, and when I get to the plane it is not a MAS plane but a plane of some other company. Why? Code share - because Malaysian Airline has entered into agreement with some other airline to carry MAS's passengers to the required destination. These code-share arrangements can sometimes involve many different airlines, and even at the airport, that is why we see many different 'flight numbers' on the display screens announcing arrival and departure of planes.

I have at times felt cheated because I would have bought a ticket with a particular airline because I like the airline and the on-board services, and maybe after considering its service records. Imagine the disappointment when I find that I am to board a plane from a different airline... and, mind you this fact is known by the passengers at the very last minute... Complaint all you want but your choice is to fly in that plane or ...what? So, many passengers just board the plane as directed..

With regard to MH370, we are told that China Southern Airlines was a code share partner in that flight. So, how many passengers were really MAS passengers having bought a MAS ticket, and how many of them were really China Southern Airline passengers having purchased a China Southern Airline ticket for that flight. To date, this information has not come out...WHY?

Well, it was MAS plane, so MAS is responsible for the plane and the safety/security of passengers in that flight, but surely the 'code-share' partner should also be responsible especially to the China Southern Airline passengers...would not the agreement/contract be between passenger and airline the passengers bought their ticket from? Should not the China Southern Airline passengers be demanding 'answers', compensation, assistance from China Southern Airline?

Interestingly, China Southern Airline was almost 'invisible' throughout the whole situation? Of course, MAS CEO foolishly may have said that MAS was wholly responsible, but really...? 

Or was it really that all passengers in flight MH370 was really passengers flying with MAS ticket...and there were really no passengers flying using tickets purchased from China Southern Airline? 

If there were China Southern Airline passengers on flight MH370, should it not be this airline now taking care of the family and friends of their passengers on flight MH370? 

When a passenger purchases a ticket from a particular airline, is not the contract (...all obligations, responsibilities, etc) between that airline and its passengers?

MAS CEO: MH370 Code share partner will help families of passengers

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — Malaysia Airlines (MAS) code share partner China Southern Airlines has agreed to cooperate with MAS in giving aid to families of passengers of missing MAS Flight MH370, said MAS chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya. 

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 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 12.41am 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 6.30am 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.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak then announced on March 24, seventeen days after the disappearance of Flight MH370 that it “ended in the southern Indian Ocean”. The search continues there. — Bernama - - New Straits Times,31/3/2014, MAS CEO: MH370 Code share partner will help families of passengers

- Charles Hector