The recession is spawning a new literary genre: pessimism porn. For hard-core enthusiasts, updates from China’s airlines are essential fare. Evidence of flagging demand is at odds with Beijing’s rhetoric. Passenger growth across the industry slipped by more than 3 per cent last year. Total cargo volumes fell for a sixth month in January, with year-on-year declines ranging from 31 per cent (Air China) to 44 (China Southern).

For Beijing, the impact of vanishing loads is intensified by decisions it made seven years ago, when it fashioned three national champions from an industry-wide restructuring. But the mergers, based on three regional airlines and their respective hubs in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, were done on geopolitical rather than commercial grounds. The trio inherited incompatible fleets and even more incompatible managements. China Eastern, the weakest of the three, lost money even when volumes were growing at 20 per cent a year.