Qantas’s budget carrier, Jetstar Airways, will play an increasingly important role as the group pushes ahead with low-cost expansion while repeatedly cutting mainline operations.

China Eastern Airlines says it lost ¥15.3 billion (US$2.2 billion) in 2008 but is refusing to consider job cuts as it seeks to reduce costs. The loss represented a colossal 37% of revenue and was blamed on weak demand and high fuel prices early in the year that were followed by unprofitable hedging. Dwarfing the ¥7 billion in new capital that the government has granted to the company to get it through the recession, the scale of the financial deficit suggests that China Eastern will need yet more state funding.

China Southern is asking for more government funding after reporting a loss that exceeded its last batch of state support. After burning capital with a 4.8 billion yuan net loss for 2008, the airline, China’s largest, is not specifying how much it wants from Beijing, but says the more it gets, the better. Typical of the industry, China Southern managed some business growth last year — passenger numbers were up 2.3% — but a modest rise in domestic demand was not enough to support profits in the face of international weakness.