CHINA Eastern Airlines said yesterday it would offer compensation of up to 400 yuan (US$57.15) per person to passengers on the 21 flights that were intentionally disrupted by pilots in Yunnan Province last week.

The compensation was set according to a guideline set by the General Administration of Civil Aviation in June 2004, Xinmin.com reported yesterday, citing a compensation team of the carrier's Yunnan branch.

Carriers should offer compensation to passengers if flights have been delayed for more than four hours due to management problems of airlines, the guideline said.

The compensation can be in cash or future ticket discounts, the guideline states.

However, carriers can decide the compensation amount.

The China Eastern flights did not land at their destinations and instead returned to their departure points, leaving more than 1,000 passengers stranded at Kunming Airport in the capital city of Yunnan.

Media reports suggested the pilots were protesting over pay and working conditions.

China Eastern admitted Monday for the first time that the flights were intentionally disrupted by the pilots, which contradicted its previous claim that the flights returned due to bad weather.

Two senior officials and some pilots were suspended by the carrier over the "no-destination" flight action Monday.

The carrier apologized for the inconvenience and pledged to severely punish those responsible.

Conflict between pilots and State-owned airlines have intensified in recent years because of the shortage of pilots. The country has 12,000 civilian pilots, but official figures predict that the total number of flights will increase 80 percent by 2010 when 6,500 more pilots will be required.

Conflict has also been blamed on lifetime contracts which require pilots to pay a large sum of money if they want to quit.

A new regulation took effect April 1, stipulating that a pilot should pay compensation of between 700,000 yuan and 2.1 million yuan to an airline when he resigns from the company.

(SD-Agencies)