A growing number of travelers are protesting airline delays by
refusing to get off planes that arrive at their destination late
until they receive monetary compensation, said the industry
watchdog.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China may have unwittingly
created the problem when it announced guidelines last month calling
for airlines to publish compensation plans for delayed
passengers.
That demand, which only one small domestic airline has met so
far, may have emboldened angry passengers to stand up and fight for
compensation, according to industry analysts.
"We have noticed that the number of passengers refusing to get
off planes after delays has increased during the past month," Zhong
Ning, a spokeswoman for the CAAC, told Shanghai Daily
during a telephone interview Friday. "We don't support such
behavior as it leads to more delays."
Zhang said passenger protests have become an almost daily event
in China of late.
She didn't provide exact numbers of the flights or passengers
involved.
Just Friday, two passengers refused to get off a China Eastern
flight to Qingdao, Shandong Province, that had first been delayed
and then forced to return to Shanghai mid-flight due to mechanical
problems.
The two passengers refused to get off the plane after it
returned for repairs, said Cui Xiaowei, a passenger on the
flight.
"They left the plane later. I don't know whether they got the
compensation," said the 26-year-old.
The plane, flight MU5511, was scheduled to leave Shanghai for
Qingdao at 8:45am. It took off at 9:30am before being forced to
return to the city.
After the delay, passengers were finally able to board a
different plane, which took off at 2:40pm, about six hours behind
schedule.
When a plane flying from Qingdao to Shanghai was delayed by more
than six hours earlier this month, about 30 passengers refused to
get off. They were eventually given 300 yuan (US$36) each as
compensation.
A regional carrier operating out of Shenzhen has announced its
compensation policy following the CAAC's demand last month, but
analysts say none of the country's biggest airlines want to
announce their policies ahead of the competition.
"I have no idea when the policies will come out. None of the
three largest carriers are ready to be the first to publicize such
rules," said a manager with China Eastern Airlines Co surnamed
Xu.
A former airline executive, who worked with a foreign carrier
for about three years, said airlines' compensations should not be
announced to the public.
(Shanghai Daily July 31, 2004)