Malaysia Air retiring missing flight number

Malaysia Airlines is retiring the flight number of an airplane that has been missing for nearly week.

The company announced Thursday that its trips between Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and Beijing, China, will no longer be known as flights 370 and 371.

“As a mark of respect to the passengers and crew of MH370 on 8 March 2014, the MH370 and MH371 flight codes will be retired from the Malaysia Airlines’ Kuala Lumpur- Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route,” the company said in a statement. “With effect from 14 March 2014, the new flight number to replace MH370 and MH371 will be: MH 318 – Kuala Lumpur – Beijing [and] MH 319 – Beijing – Kuala Lumpur.

{mosads}“There are no changes to the frequency of our services and we will continue to operate double daily services to Beijing,” the Malaysia Air statement continued. “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the families of our colleagues and passengers of MH 370.”

Malaysia Air’s flight 370 has been missing since last Friday, when it disappeared from air traffic control radars.

The missing plane was a Boeing 777 that was carrying 239 people.

U.S. State Department officials have confirmed that at least three of the passengers who were on board the plane were Americans.