AIR China will suspend its flights on the Beijing-Hawaii route from Aug. 27 after a review of its network, China’s flagship carrier said yesterday, as travel demand remains weak amid the Sino-U.S. trade tensions.

Passengers who have purchased tickets for travel after that date will receive a full refund, Air China said in a statement on its website.

The passenger load factor — an industry metric that measures how much of an airline’s passenger carrying capacity is used — for Air China’s thrice-weekly Beijing-Honolulu route averaged 66.37 percent last year, according to Chinese aviation data provider Variflight.

That was well below the average load factor of 76.69 percent for Air China’s international flights last year.

Hawaiian Airlines last year pulled out of the same non-stop service between Honolulu and Beijing, which it opened in 2014, citing slower-than-expected growth in demand.

Its CEO Peter Ingram said the route was suspended due to lack of growth and not because of trade tensions with China.

China in June issued a travel advisory warning tourists about the risks of traveling to the United States, citing concerns about gun violence, robberies and thefts.

The number of Chinese tourists arriving in the United States posted the first decline last year in 15 years, according to U.S. data.(SD-Agencies)