CA Announces Emergency Plan in Effect After an Earthquake in Southwest China (Sichuan Province)

BEIJING, May 15 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- A major earthquake hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province at 14:28pm, PEK time on May 12, 2008. Chengdu Shuangliu (CTU) airport is closed. 12 CA (Chengdu Airport) flights en route to Chengdu have been diverted to other airports.

CA announced the emergency plan to be in effect on 15:00pm. All the CA flights in the air are in close communication with the headquarters. Upon issuing the release, no casualty and property damage has been reported at CA southwest subsidiary.

CA has instructed all affected offices to implement emergency plans and take good care of stranded passengers. CA also has the fleet on standby for restoration operations and special tasks.

Meanwhile, Air China continued to enhance capacity input for disaster relief. On 14 May, Air China allocated 91 flights (16792 seats) for evacuation of stranded passengers in Chengdu and cancelled 24 normal flights for urgent disaster relief operations. In addition, as a result of road damage in Jiuzhaigou and snowfall, a large number of passengers were stranded. The CTU airport has reopened for operations now and Air China instantly prepared 8 flights with 1024 seats to evacuate passengers. Currently, Air China is on 24- hour duty and will adjust capacity according to the situation.