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Malaysia Airline says it is retiring the flight number of the plane that was shot down over Ukraine.

The carrier said in a statement that as of Friday, it will no longer use MH17 to identify any of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur flights.

It said it is doing so 'out of respect for our crew and passengers' who were on board the MH17 flight from Amsterdam to Malaysia that was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday.

Flight number: Malaysia Airlines will no longer use MH17 for the Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur route after its jet, pictured, was shot down over Ukraine

The airline said the new flight number replacing MH17 would be MH19.

It also said there would be no changes to the frequency of its Amsterdam-Kuala Lumpur service, and that it would continue to operate daily flights between the cities.

Flight 17 was shot down over Ukraine on Thursday killing all 298 passengers and crew on board.

The announcement by Malaysia Airlines comes as the country prepares itself for a drop in tourism in the wake of the tragedy.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 taking off from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam before it was shot down over Ukraine

Air crash investigators will look for the aircraft's black boxes to determine what exactly happened to the jet

Malaysian Consulate General in Medan Ahmad Rozian Abdul Ghani compared the tourism situation after Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 disappeared in April.

He told Jakarta Post: 'Only the number of Chinese tourists decreased when Malaysia Airlines MH370 first disappeared, but the number of tourists from other countries was largely unaffected.

'However, we're not sure about the effects of this incident [MH17].

'Hopefully, the number won't be affected too much, if we base our predictions on the first incident.'

Tourism director for Malaysia in Medan Nor'Asikin Harun said she was 'optimistic' the number of tourists would reach 28 million by the end of 2014.

She added: 'There will be some effect from the incident but we will try our hardest and remain optimistic.'