China has lifted its regulations concerning air fare pricing, effectively allowing its airline players to sell cheap tickets to passengers.

Effective Oct 9, the change was applied to 31 domestic routes including Shanghai-to-Tianjin and Beijing-to-Nanjing, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China on its Web site.

An airline traveller checks his mobile phone as he transits through Terminal 3 at Linbergh Field airport in San Diego, California, November 6, 2013. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The recent development intends "to give customers more choices," a CAAC spokeswoman told Reuters on Thursday. It will also give airline companies a chance to compete with high-speed railways. The latter has better chances of capturing the riding public because it offers cheaper tickets.

Many Chinese airlines offer special-priced flight tickets during off-peak seasons, down as much as 90 per cent off the original rates. These ultra low-cost tickets however runs against a set of 2004 rules that states domestic airline companies do not have the discretion to set flight fares that are either 25 per cent higher or 45 per cent lower than the full, original price.

China has a number of airlines, including Air China, China Southern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Lucky Air and Shanghai Airlines, among others.

Spring Airlines, responding to the new regulation, will soon open a new flight from Shanghai to Taipei at only a 199 yuan airfare during the initial period. Juneyao Airlines, another low-cost airline, likewise announced it will offer a great number of 9 yuan and 19 yuan priced flight tickets.

But analysts said the alteration will not effect to any major impact as far as the profitability of domestic carriers is concerned.

Yu Nan, a Haitong Securities analyst, said the country's airline sector has been struggling for sometime now, a result of the slowing economy.

"Few airlines have strictly abided by the price floor in the first place," Boyong Liu, an analyst with Jefferies Hong Kong, told Reuters. "It's more a gesture from the aviation regulator, and is in line with the call by China's new leadership for further liberalization."

China's various airlines have the authority to slap airfare rates by as much as 25 per cent more since 2004.

However, the country's slowing economy prompted the airline companies to lower prices by as much as 80 per cent.