China Eastern Airlines Corp said yesterday it would quickly address management issues raised by the government's cancellation of a number of its routes, an action that will cut 400 million yuan (HK$445.65 million) off its sales this year.
'We will seriously learn a lesson from the incident and actively react to the requirements of the regulator,' the airline said in an announcement filed with Shanghai Stock Exchange yesterday.
'An application for resuming the flights will be tendered as soon as possible.'
Civil Aviation Administration of China director general Wang Ronghua said yesterday that the airline's first priority was to improve its management standards.
Late last month, thousands of passengers were stranded after 18 China Eastern pilots turned back in midflight amid a dispute with the state-owned airline's management over pay raises and overtime flying. The pilots were permanently banned after the incident.
On April 16, the CAAC ordered that flights between Kunming and Dali as well as Kunming and Xishuangbanna be taken away from China Eastern effective May 4. Six routes between Kunming and other cities in Yunnan such as Lijiang and Zhongdian will be cut by two to six flights per day.