China Eastern Punished For Returned Flights

The Southwest Management Bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China has punished China Eastern Airlines' Yunnan Branch for the company's returned flights incident earlier this month after some of its pilots had a labor dispute.

As punishment, the company has been asked to stop the flights between Kunming and Xishuangbanna, and Kunming and Dali. The company's flights between Kunming and Lijiang, and Kunming and Zhongdian as well as a number of other cities have been reduced. All the suspended flights of China Eastern will be instead run by Air China, Shenzhen Airlines, Lucky Air and West Air, of which, the Yunming airport based Lucky Air will be the biggest beneficiary, according to the Southwest Management Bureau of CAAC.

On March 31 and April 1, a total of 21 flights of China Eastern were returned to their departure base as a result of a few pilots' labor dispute with the airline. CAAC later fined China Eastern RMB1.5 million for this incident and has now issued this punishment.

About 20 other flights of China Eastern have reportedly been reduced, but it is unknown exactly which flights will be affected.