Until now.
After Losing 2 Passenger Jets, Malaysia Airlines Suspends Trading And Plans To Become State-Owned
One plane was shot down by a hostile foreign power. Before that, one of their aircraft was flown off course by a possibly deranged pilot.
Two circumstances, completely out of the control of the corporate ownership is all that it takes for statists to be able to “reasonably” privatize a corporation.
The next US automaker bailout will be similar. The government won’t accept a loss on the stock. They’ll just take all the stock.
The counter-argument is Carnival Cruise Lines. While their disasters haven’t been as spectacular as Malaysian Airlines, they’re in a similar boat (pardon any puns). They’ve had a myriad of accidents/incidents, and they’re not nationalizing themselves.
And American Airlines hasn’t sought a bailout or nationalization scheme, even while they’ve been getting their asses kicked in the airline industry.
And you could just chalk it up to different countries and different mindsets. Even with progressive socialist liberalism winning culture wars in the US lately, the idea of private businesses becoming state-owned or nationalized still leaves people with a foul taste in their mouths. Not sure on the Malay mindset on these sorts of things.