Seven pilots from China Eastern, most of whom plan to jump to private airlines, are protesting against their current company because their resignation requests have been denied.

Of the seven pilots, two are planning to work for East Star, a private aviation company that offers a 30% higher salary than China Eastern.

Wan Yijian, director of the Marketing Department of East Star, says that East Star is negotiating with China Eastern on whether the concerned pilots' current contracts have terminated before they go further into the compensation details.

China Eastern is asking East Star for RMB6 million for each captain and RMB3.07 million for each pilot. East Star says it will only accept these two pilots once their labor contracts with China Eastern have expired.

The shortage of pilots has become a bottleneck for private aviation companies in China. East Star has already spent lots of money attracting new pilots. Okay Air, another privately-run airline in China, says it sees a great need for pilots to handle its six scheduled planes.