The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) says it is working with the People's Bank of China to help find a solution around recently initiated online payment rules in China.

Last week the People's Bank of China issued a new circular with a requirement that the value of a single online purchase should not be more than CNY1000 and that of daily accumulated purchases should not exceed CNY5000, except when the purchase is conducted with an e-signature.

The People's Bank of China says this rule has been drafted to regulate e-payment activities to promote the healthy development of e-payment and e-commerce in China.

However online Chinese travel companies like eLong.com (LONG) and Ctrip.com (CTRP) will suffer under this new policy because their airline and hotel online bookings can easily exceede CNY1000 per transaction.

There is no definite timeline on when a solution will be found through this new cooperation, but both sides are working to implement changes before the Spring Festival holidays in early 2006.