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Air China announce Sep-2009 traffic results

Direct News Source

Management discussion of Sep-2009 operating data

In September, air traffic market saw the growth trend continue despite passenger traffic demand marginally softened on a month-over-month basis. Air China again recorded across-the-board year-over-year double digit growth in passenger traffic and volume in all markets. Cargo market also had delightful improvement, with higher increase in both traffic and volume on both year-over-year and month-over-month basis.

Passenger capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometers (ASK), increased by 10.3% year-over-year during the month. Passenger traffic, measured by Revenue Passenger Kilometers (RPK), saw a higher growth of 11.4% during the period. Capacity on international routes was down by 0.61% year-over-year while RPK grew by 10.4%. Domestic and regional capacity increased by 17% and 26% year-over-year, respectively, with RPK up 11.4% and 26.3%, respectively. The passenger load factor was 76.6%, improved by 0.8 percentage point compared with the same time last year. The passenger load factor for the international routes increased by 8.3 percentage points to 83.3%. The regional passenger load factor up by 0.2 percentage point to 67% while the domestic passenger load factor was 73.2%, a decline of 3.7 percentage points. (Please note these figures do not include Air Macau.)

Cargo capacity, measured by Available Freighter Tonne Kilometres (AFTK), increased by 7.8% compared with September last year. Cargo traffic, measured in Revenue Freighter Tonne Kilometres (RFTK), and the Tonnage Carried surged by 22.7% and27.2 % year-over-year, respectively. Cargo load factor improved to 61.4%, an increase of 7.5 percentage points year-over-year.

In September, the Company's average jet fuel purchase price at international airports amounted to RMB4,517 per tonne, and the average purchase price of jet fuel for international flights at the top six Chinese airports was RMB4,865 per tonne, representing a 41% and 40% decline year-over-year, respectively. The Company's average jet fuel purchase price for domestic flights was RMB5,477 per tonne, a drop of 37% compared with last September.

During the month, the Company purchased a total of 260,000 tonnes of jet fuel at an average purchase price of RMB5,118 per tonne, down 39% year-over-year.

Effective September 2, domestic jet fuel price increased by RMB300 per tonne.