China Eastern Airlines Corp, one of the country's three biggest carriers, said on Saturday that it expected to post a "relatively large" net loss for the first nine months of this year.

In a brief statement to the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the airline blamed a steep fall in traffic demand in the third quarter, as well as a hike in domestic aviation fuel prices.

In the first nine months of last year, China Eastern made a net profit of 1.04 billion yuan ($152 million).

A senior China Eastern executive told Reuters earlier in the week that China’s air travel market was likely to remain soft as the global economy faltered, and that the market might not rebound until the second half of next year.

($1 = 6.83 yuan)