The current underwater search for the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean is expected to be completed in June 2016, said the Australian Joint Agency Coordination Centre (JACC).

JACC said in a statement today that more than 80,000 sq km of the 120,000 sq km of the search area had been covered so far.

"The search for Flight MH370 would carry on through the Christmas and New Year period," it said.

Flight MH370 went missing while enroute to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. There were 239 passengers and crew on board.