Chinese airline sees passenger slump amid tensions with South Korea

Xiamen Airlines said it has seen passenger numbers fall by up to a fifth on flights to South Korea since a recent flare up in diplomatic tensions between the two countries. The tensions are over the deployment of a US missile system outside Seoul, which China has urged South Korea to halt. Xiamen Airlines' chairman Che Shanglun said Thursday that the carrier was seeing Chinese travellers cancel or postpone trips to South Korea. The airline flies daily to Seoul and Jeju Island in South Korea. "We haven't reduced flights, but passenger numbers have fallen ... by about 10-20% daily," Che said. "Some people are automatically thinking, the current situation is not good, there is discrimination there against us, so we shouldn't go ... The recent actions of (the South Korean govt) have hurt many Chinese citizens." <br/>