He is the son of a legendary revolutionary couple who were in the thick of the action when New China was founded 60 years ago. Kong Dong is a man with his eyes on the horizon as he steers the country's flag-carrier, Air China, toward high-altitude profitability after the turbulence witnessed due to the global economic slowdown.

Kong, 61, told China Daily yesterday: "I have full confidence that we can turn over an exam paper with quite satisfactory scores to our stakeholders, thanks to China's economic resurgence and air traffic rebound."

If that happens, it would be a decisive victory for Kong, whose company, with a workforce of 20,000, plunged deep into the red in 2008, registering a loss of 9.2 billion yuan. It was a poor year after five years of positive growth ever since the company was listed in 2004.