“Chinese authorities have fined a low-cost airline almost $20,000 for selling tickets for 13 U.S. cents in a promotion, saying they broke national pricing rules, a newspaper said on Monday. Spring Airlines, set up last year by travel agent China Spring International, sold more than 400 tickets on a new route between Shanghai and the northern city of Jinan for just 1 yuan ($0.13), the Beijing Times said. But that went against a 2004 rule — designed to help carriers’ bottom lines after a vicious price war — that the maximum discount an airline can offer is 45 percent off a government-set base price, the report added. A standard one-way ticket between Shanghai and Jinan costs 760 yuan ($97.10), excluding tax and fuel surcharge. The Jinan government said it would fine Spring Airlines’ local travel agent branch 150,000 yuan ($19,160) as a punishment, though the company denies wrongdoing and will appeal, the newspaper said.” [editor’s note: Does it bother anyone that this story makes China’s regulators sound … almost as bad as the US’s? - TLK] (12/18/06)