China Eastern Airlines will have its special trading limit waived from today after it returned to profit last year thanks to recovering demand and government aid.

The country's second-largest carrier asked the Shanghai bourse on April 19 to end the limit and this has been approved, it said.

The daily trading limit for the Shanghai-based carrier returns to 10 percent in either direction from the previous 5 percent.

Shareholder equity of China Eastern reached 3.1 billion yuan (US$454 million) last year. The limit was imposed on April 17, 2009, after China Eastern reported two straight years of losses.

"The carrier's debt-to-asset ratio reached 97 percent by the first quarter of this year, still at the edge of bankruptcy. So we believe the carrier will continue to introduce strategic investors or financial investors, such as Singapore Airlines and SkyTeam Alliance members, to improve its performance," said Ma Xiaoli, an analyst at Citic Securities Co.

Last year, the carrier received around 9 billion yuan in a cash injection from central government. It also increased its market share in Shanghai to more than 50 percent by acquiring smaller local rival Shanghai Airlines, which made it a carrier with operating capital of more than 150 billion yuan and a fleet of 331 aircraft.

"We expect the government will grant more support to China Eastern, such as lower taxes, more subsidies and better schedules, to help build Shanghai into an international aviation hub and better serve the World Expo. The carrier is likely to make bigger improvements than other two giant airlines - China Southern Airlines and Air China," Ma said.

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