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Air China hopes for govt funds, pursues East Star

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-16 19:19

China's flag carrier Air China said on Monday it continues to hope for a government capital injection, as it vowed to press ahead with an acquisition despite being rebuffed, its chairman said on Monday.

Related readings:  Air China requesting government cash injection  Chinese airlines in management reshuffle  Airlines slash fares by 60%  China grounds debt-laden East Star Airlines

"We're still financially healthy, but of course we hope for government help," Air China Chairman Kong Dong told reporters during a ceremony to open its first office in Taiwan. "But even if we don't get any help, we'll still be able to weather the current crisis."

Kong had said in early March that the airline hoped to be profitable in 2009, and that it has asked the government for a cash injection of at least 3 billion yuan ($439 million).

Air China's main rivals China Eastern and China Southern have both received aid of up to 3 billion yuan from the Chinese government.

Another company executive, senior vice-president Tan Zhihong, also said Air China expects to make a 6-billion-yuan loss in 2008, more than the 5.6 billion yuan loss that analysts were expecting.

Like their international rivals, airlines in China have been struggling with slowing demand for air travel, volatile fuel prices and tighter access to credit.

Despite losses last year, Kong said his airline intends to push ahead with its planned acquisition of East Star Airlines, a small carrier based in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that was grounded on Sunday for being unable to pay back heavy debts.

"We have a responsibility to acquire, merge with or help airlines that are struggling right now," Kong said. "The notion that East Star might reject our help is probably the view of a small minority."

The proposed takeover is just the latest in China's airline industry which, like its global peers, has been hard hit by high oil prices followed by a plummet in demand during the global downturn.

Another proposed merger between Shanghai Air and China Eastern is still unresolved.

Sources said previously that the government is brokering a merger of the two, but Shanghai Air's chairman said last week he has not been informed of a merger by the government and the two have never discussed the issue.