China Eastern Airlines said yesterday its total traffic volume rose 13.2 percent in the first six months to 1.126 billion ton-kilometers from the same period last year following an increase in its daily aircraft utilization.

The Shanghai-based carrier said it hasn't expanded its fleet despite the traffic growth.

"Our daily aircraft utilization in the period reached nine hours, an average increase of nearly one hour, the highest in the company's history," said Zhang Linchang, a China Eastern spokesman. "It mainly resulted from our effort to improve management to further exploit market potentials."

The airline has extended its departure and arrival times to as early as 7:20 a.m. and as late as 12:00 p.m. to attract budget travelers. In cooperation with local travel agencies, it offers discounts for its early and late flights mainly to tour groups.

On March 25, the airline increased the number of its daily flights on the Shanghai-Hong Kong and Shanghai-Beijing routes to eight and 10 from the original six and five.

In the first half, the 63-aircraft carrier handled 4.826 million passengers worldwide, up 10.4 percent from a year ago. Its operating revenues surged 7.4 percent to 5.232 billion yuan (US$630.36 million).

(Eastday.com.cn 07/24/2001)