A seasonal schedule change had resulted in the cancellation of more than 20 flights departing Shenzhen last week as the peak summer travel season ended for Shenzhen Airlines, Chinese-language media reported Saturday.
More than 40 flights operated by Shenzhen Airlines and its subsidiary airlines were canceled in the past week. The cancellations followed a plane crash that killed 42 people in Yichuan, Heilongjiang Province, on Aug. 24, prompting speculation that safety concerns were behind the cancellations. The Yichuan air crash flight was operated by Henan Airlines, a subsidiary of Shenzhen Airlines.
Shenzhen Airlines said in a statement to local media in response to the cancellations that the company reduced the number of flights on a few routes because the aviation industry was entering the traditional low season after the summer break.
"Flights from Shenzhen to Xiangfan in Hubei Province, Yibin in Sichuan Province, Lijiang in Yunnan Province, Huangshan in Anhui Province and others were reduced at the end of August as the number of travelers on these routes declined," the statement said.
The airline said more than 2,000 temporary flights had been added to meet demand in the peak summer travel season in July and August. "September is traditionally a low period for the domestic air industry, so the schedules changed," the statement said.
The airline did not mention safety in the statement but there has been speculation that flights on branch routes were canceled for security reasons. Media reports said some of the canceled flights used the same ERJ-190 aircraft that crashed in Yichuan.
Meanwhile, most flights were not affected by heavy rain brought by Tropical Storm Lionrock at the weekend. Flights to Shanghai, Nanjing and other cities in eastern coastal provinces were canceled or delayed because of bad weather. (SD News)
