CHINA Eastern Airlines Corp, the nation's third-largest carrier, posted its first drop in monthly passenger numbers in more than three years as rising inflation and government attempts to cool the economy stunted demand.

The airline carried 3.35 million passengers in April, 0.3 percent less than a year earlier, it told Bloomberg News yesterday. Passenger load factor, or the percentage of seats filled, dropped 2.4 percentage points from a year earlier to 73 percent, the Shanghai-based carrier added.

Chinese travel demand has cooled as inflation near an 11-year high cuts the amount of money people have to spend on holidays and other luxuries.

The price of fuel, most Asian carriers' biggest expense, has also doubled in the past year in Singapore trading, boosting airlines' costs.

"I don't see a good trend for China Eastern's growth this year," said Kelvin Lau, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research in Hong Kong.