BEIJING, July 24, SinoCast -- Eight airlines in China were exposed of owing heavy debts to airports, said China Civil Airports Association.

Those airlines owed CNY 947 million to 27 domestic airports for over three monthly ended on March 31, 2008. United Eagle Airlines, Grand China Express Airlines Co., Ltd. and Deer Jet Co., Ltd. were the three most maliciously in-debt airlines with proportion of account unpaid to account payable hitting 106.88%, 102.69% and 99.70%, respectively, followed by East Star Airlines with 80.890%, Okay Airlines with 72.13%, JuneYao Airlines with 49.47%, China Express Airlines with 49.44% and Hainan Airlines Co., Ltd. (SHSE: 600221) with 43.40%.

The list of those airlines was released in an effort to urge them to pay the tolls quickly. The airlines in the list said they would check the accounts and pay them as soon as possible.

The civil aviation industry made CNY 3.7 billion earnings during the first half of 2008, a drop of 23% over a year ago, with passenger load factor of regular flights reaching 74.1%, the same level with a year ago.

<<SinoCast China Business Daily News -- 07/24/08>>