KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Airlines had hoped it would return to profitability by next year, but the struggling national carrier said it has pushed back to 2014 the expected time when it will break even. It had hoped that an alliance with Air Asia, the low-cost budget carrier in the region, would have boosted its profits enough to become profitable by next year, but that deal failed to go through this month, leaving Malaysia Airlines hopeful for the following year to return to the black. Malaysia Airlines said after its annual general meeting Thursday that a “renewed” business plan — without the cooperation deal — included cutting costs to return to profit by 2014. “We give ourselves up to 2014 basically to return to profitability, a change from our earlier target by 2013,” chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya was quoted as saying by the national news agency Bernama. The troubled airline said it aimed to cut operational costs by 20 percent within three years through measures including as axing loss-making routes and concentrating on lucrative routes in Asia as well as possible job losses. The airline also aims to increase revenue per available seat-kilometer by 10 percent, it said. An official confirmed the comments Friday.