China Eastern has finally admitted that the returned flights of the company were caused by the deliberate action of the company's pilots and it has agreed to compensate the passengers who were affected.

From March 31 to April 1, 21 flights of China Eastern were returned to their departure points in Yunnan Province, in southwestern China, affecting more than 1000 passengers in total. The company originally said the incidents were due to poor weather. However flights with other airlines flying the same routes landed on schedule during the same period. The flights instead were returned because of a labor action taken by the pilots who were demanding better labor rights.

China Eastern says it will compensate each of the passengers RMB400 if the flights they took were cancelled, pay RMB100 to each of those whose flights were delayed by 1-2 hours and who were not arranged hotel accommodations, and pay RMB200 to each of those whose flights were delayed by up to eight hours. China Eastern says it will notify the passengers via telephone calls and send them the compensation by mail.

China Eastern says it has made the compensation measure according to a guideline rule issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.