Shenzhen Airlines has teamed up with a charity organization in the city to offer hundreds of air tickets priced at one yuan (US$0.13) each, as part of a scheme to help needy students in rural areas.

Officials with the airline yesterday unveiled the scheme, which will offer 582 one-yuan air tickets. Passengers availing of the offer will also have to donate 99 yuan to the charity organization Gesanghua, which strives to ensure universal access to basic education in western China by providing financial assistance to individual students and reconstructing dilapidated schools.

"We will provide two single-trip charity tickets online every day until Dec. 31, a total of 582 tickets," said a spokesman surnamed Zhang with Shenzhen Airlines' customer service center.

He said the company will randomly select destinations and post the information on its Web site at 12 a.m. daily, and tickets will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis.

The tickets are not refundable or changeable. To buy the discounted tickets, passengers need to register with the airline.

Editor: Donald