A strike by China Airlines (CAL, 中華航空) flight attendants that started yesterday caused cancelations of at least 67 flights operated by the airline, which is Taiwan’s largest air carrier.
Sixty-seven CAL flights that were to depart from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) between 6am and 10am yesterday were canceled, affecting at least 20,000 passengers and resulting in revenue losses of about NT$160 million (US$4.92 million).
However, all CAL flights from Tainan and Kaohsiung were running on time as of noon yesterday, as the flight attendants there are not members of the Taoyuan Flight Attendants Union, which called the strike.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Crowds of passengers lined up at CAL counters at Songshan airport and Taoyuan airport yesterday morning as the airline tried to get them onto different flights.
The airline said it had scheduled 92 flights out of Taiwan yesterday and had arranged for passengers to take alternative flights or reschedule their departure.
TransAsia Airways (復興航空), Cathay Pacific Airways (國泰航空) and EVA Airways (長榮航空) were accepting passengers with CAL tickets to some destinations yesterday.
CAL was also offering US$100 coupons to each passenger affected by the cancelations.
Meanwhile, at Songshan airport, 30 union members were distributing leaflets in the lobby to inform people about the issues. While some passengers expressed support for the flight attendants, others complained about the inconvenience.
To help clear the backlog, CAL has sought assistance from Japan Airlines and Tiger Air to fly passengers to Northeast Asia; from Cathay Pacific Airways, Thai Airways and Philippine Airlines to take passengers to Southeast Asia; and from China Eastern Airlines (中國東方航空) and China Southern Airlines (中國南方航空) to take passengers to China. The strike has also affected inbound flights from China, Bangkok and Jakarta that would have been the return leg of flights from Taiwan.
Several passengers at the CAL counter at Beijing International Airport said they were dissatisfied because CAL had given no advance notice of the flight cancelations.
In Thailand, two flights from Bangkok to Taipei were canceled, the airline’s office there said.
The union, which has more than 2,500 CAL members, voted on Tuesday to proceed with the strike after a breakdown of its talks with CAL management over work hours, subsides and the location flight attendants are required to clock in.
The union has threatened to indefinitely maintain the strike, the first on record in Taiwan’s airline industry, if demands over conditions are not met.
Information on CAL flight schedules is available on the carrier’s Web site (www.china-airlines.com/tw/zh/fly/flight-status/index), or via its service center telephone line at (02) 412-9000.
Beijing’s continued provocations in the Taiwan Strait reveal its intention to unilaterally change the “status quo” in the area, the US Department of State said on Saturday, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross-strait issues. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) reported that four China Coast Guard patrol vessels entered restricted and prohibited waters near Kinmen County on Friday and again on Saturday. A State Department spokesperson said that Washington was aware of the incidents, and urged all parties to exercise restraint and refrain from unilaterally changing the “status quo.” “Maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is in line with our [the
EXTENDED RANGE: Hsiung Sheng missiles, 100 of which might be deployed by the end of the year, could reach Chinese command posts and airport runways, a source said A NT$16.9 billion (US$534.93 million) project to upgrade the military’s missile defense systems would be completed this year, allowing the deployment of at least 100 long-range Hsiung Sheng missiles and providing more deterrence against China, military sources said on Saturday. Hsiung Sheng missiles are an extended-range version of the Hsiung Feng IIE (HF-2E) surface-to-surface cruise missile, and are believed to have a range of up to 1,200km, which would allow them to hit targets well inside China. They went into mass production in 2022, the sources said. The project is part of a special budget for the Ministry of National Defense aimed at
READY TO WORK: Taiwan is eager to cooperate and is hopeful that like-minded states will continue to advocate for its inclusion in regional organizations, Lai said Maintaining the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait, and peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region must be a top priority, president-elect William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday after meeting with a delegation of US academics. Leaders of the G7, US President Joe Biden and other international heads of state have voiced concerns about the situation in the Strait, as stability in the region is necessary for a safe, peaceful and prosperous world, Lai said. The vice president, who is to be inaugurated in May, welcomed the delegation and thanked them for their support for Taiwan and issues concerning the Strait. The international community
COOPERATION: Two crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank off Kinmen were rescued, two were found dead and another two were still missing at press time The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) was yesterday working with Chinese rescuers to find two missing crewmembers from a Chinese fishing boat that sank southwest of Kinmen County yesterday, killing two crew. The joint operation managed to rescue two of the boat’s six crewmembers, but two were already dead when they were pulled from the water, the agency said in a statement. Rescuers are still searching for two others from the Min Long Yu 61222, a boat registered in China’s Fujian Province that capsized and sank 1.03 nautical miles (1.9km) southwest of Dongding Island (東碇), it added. CGA Director-General Chou Mei-wu (周美伍) told a