A China Eastern Airlines plane missed its scheduled departure yesterday morning due to technical faults, causing 109 passengers to be delayed at Hongqiao International Airport for more than nine hours.

Flight MU5405 was scheduled to leave for Kunming in China's southern Yunnan Province at 7:30 am, however, passengers were told to wait after having received their boarding passes.

"Some mechanical parts were broken and replacements had to be sent here from Kunming," said Xing Likang, China Eastern Airlines' deputy supervisor.

All passengers were sent to a nearby hotel, given rooms and meals. The plane managed to depart at 4pm after repairs.

Still, many travelers complained about the delay.

Among them was a tourist group of 15 travelers who weren't originally scheduled to take the delayed plane.

"We had tickets for a flight of 11:40am, but the travel agency asked us to fly on the earlier one at 7:30 am," said a tourist surnamed Qiu. "Now we have to wait so long."

Qiu called on both the agency and the airline to provide a proper explanation and compensation.

"Our group's seats for the 11:40 am flight were canceled since the plane was changed from a Boeing 767 into a relatively smaller Boeing 737," said Chen Xinxiang with Shanghai Qiangsheng International Travel Service Co Ltd.

Last weekend, the Civil Aviation Administration of China issued a guideline stipulating carriers should provide compensation to travelers for flight delays of more than four hours.

China Eastern Airlines said it would comply with the compensation plan by early this month. So far, no airline in China has promised compensation for flight delays.

Yesterday, each passenger was paid 200 yuan (US$24) compensation before boarding the plane.

(Shanghai Daily July 1, 2004)