KUALA LUMPUR, March 13 -- Malaysia Airlines announced Thursday morning that the flight codes of its missing plane, MH370 and MH371, will be scrapped and replaced by new ones, but its service frequency will remain unchanged.

"As a mark of respect to the passengers and crew of MH370 on March 8, the MH370 and MH371 flight codes will be retired from the Malaysia Airlines' Kuala Lumpur-Beijing-Kuala Lumpur route," the carrier said in a latest statement.

Instead, new numbers -- MH318 for flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing and MH319 from Beijing to Kuala Lumpur -- will be used effective March 14, 2014.

The company said there will be no changes to the frequency of its services with the double daily services to Beijing continuing to be operated.

Flight MH370, a Boeing 777-200ER, vanished suddenly on its way to Beijing on Saturday morning, with 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board.

Search and rescue operations by multiple nations have failed to find the trace of the missing plane as yet.