Fate has been dealing from the bottom of the deck for a while. This year alone, natural disasters and forced groundings during the Olympic Games have been compounded by a depreciating renminbi and huge wrong-way bets on fuel prices. China Eastern, the weakest of the three, admitted last month that fair-value losses from hedging surged six-fold in October, to almost $300m.

But while the help is welcome, it will not offset the airlines' main problem: flagging passenger and cargo revenues. Fresh capital sounds great, on top of fee waivers and tax cuts last week. But the average P&L impact on the big three will be between $150-$220m, reckons Citi. Consensus forecasts are for aggregate losses to top $800m this year.

Admitting over-capacity for the first time, Beijing has banned new entrants to the industry until 2012, and is urging existing carriers to cancel orders. About 180 new planes are on order for 2009, expanding the total fleet by one-seventh. At least 40 per cent of deposits on those orders have been paid, and penalties are probably too high to default on the remainder. Delaying delivery, letting planes moulder in manufacturers' hangars, may not delight Boeing or Airbus but seems the smartest way to address falling loads and slashed fares.