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Shandong Airlines Co. Ltd. said yesterday its first-half profit is expected to be less than 50 percent of the figure for 2001's first half, mainly because passenger volume dwindled. "Passenger numbers fell sharply in the second quarter after three Chinese aircraft crashed in April and May," said Zheng Baoan, a spokesman for the carrier, whose headquarters are in Ji'nan, the capital of eastern China's Shandong Province. Shandong Air, which will release its interim report in late August, did not elaborate on passenger numbers. In April, an Air China plane crashed near Busan in South Korea, killing 122 people, and in May, a China Northern Airlines crash off Dalian, in northeastern China's Liaoning Province, killed 112. The same month, a plane belonging to Taiwan's China Airlines killed 225 when it fell near the pro-vince's Penghu Islands. Zheng said the decline in profit for the period came "unexpectedly" since April and May are a peak time for airlines. Many Chinese travel during the period's good weather, with numbers peaking during the week-long International Labor Day holiday. In the first half of last year, Shandong Air reported net income of 34.6 million yuan (US$4.1 million). In the first quarter of this year, it lost 41 million yuan. The carrier predicted business would recover in the second half as July and August bring student travel and business people book flights in September and October. Shandong Air's foreign-currency B shares fell 2.9 U.S. cents, or 5.2 percent, to 52.6 U.S. cents on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange yesterday.