Air China carried 10.7 per cent fewer passengers last month due to slowing demand and the cancellation of nearly 1,000 flights after the earthquake in Sichuan.
'Chengdu is the second-biggest air hub of Air China so the impact (of the earthquake) on us was bigger than on other carriers,' an Air China spokesman said yesterday.
'Some 985 flights were cancelled and 623 flights had to change the type of aircraft used. Services are resuming gradually, but the full recovery really depends on the pickup in Sichuan.'
The carrier carried 2.67 million passengers last month. The percentage of seats sold, or load factor, decreased 4.5 per cent to 71.3 per cent last month.
Its bigger rival China Southern Airlines did not see a decline in traffic demand last month but experienced a 1 per cent drop in load factor.
Air China reallocated some of its aircraft to Sichuan to perform relief tasks, the spokesman said. Some of the planes had been returned to Beijing.
