Shanghai Airlines is seeking a cash injection from the local government to reduce its debt-to-asset ratio.

The airline's chairman Zhou Chi was quoted by the Shanghai Securities News as saying that the cash would be much less than the 3 billion yuan (US$438 million) China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines secured respectively last week.

An unnamed company official from the airline told the newspaper that the carrier is in great need of government cash support as it suffers from falling traffic demand and huge losses in fuel hedging contracts.

Shanghai Airlines reported losses of 414 million yuan during the past three quarters and its debt-to-asset ratio reached 91.35 percent. It also reported a 98 million yuan loss from fuel hedging as of October 31.

(China Daily December 16, 2008)