Travel industry representatives yesterday said that Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT) should compensate them for financial losses they sustained after the airline last week abruptly canceled three flights to the Philippines and Vietnam.
The Executive Yuan and the Ministry of Transportation and Communications should require airlines to purchase insurance to guarantee that they fulfill their contracts with travel agents, they said, adding that contracts should also stipulate that airlines fully compensate agents if they cancel flights on the day of travel without a legitimate reason.
The airline on Friday last week announced that it would cancel flights to the islands of Palawan and Boracay in the Philippines, as well as Da Nang, Vietnam, the next day.
It cited the cap on flight hours imposed by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) as its reason for canceling the flights.
The CAA on Sunday dismissed the airline’s claim, saying that it had warned the airline last month that it should plan its flight schedule for this month more conservatively or it would exceed the limit of 1,350 flight hours, which was imposed on it due to its aging fleet.
Travel industry representatives held a news conference because they had received complaints from second and third-tier travel agencies, Cross-Strait Travel Development Association chairman Yao Ta-kuang (姚大光) said.
The nation has already experienced two strikes by China Airlines employees, and it was the travel agents and consumers who had to clean up the messes they left, which does not make any sense, Yao said, adding that EVA Airways is now facing a potential strike.
“FAT said that it would compensate us, but we do not see how it plans to protect the consumers. Many of our travelers had arranged to take time off work so that they could go on vacation last weekend, but the airline on Friday said that their flights would be canceled and it would return the money to them,” he said. “Do they think that they can solve all of the problems just by saying that?”
The labor strikes and FAT’s sudden cancelation of flights not only hurt travelers and travel agents, but have also taken a heavy toll on the nation’s image as a destination for international tourists, Yao said.
Labor unions were holding consumers hostage for their own gains, he said, adding that airport and railway workers in other nations give two month’s notice before going on strike.
Former Travel Agent Association chairman Louis Hsu (許禓哲) said that the CAA knew that FAT would exceed the flight hour limit, because it has to report its schedule to the agency every month.
What happened last weekend showed that CAA is not doing its job and is incompetent, Hsu said.
Because FAT canceled the flights without notice, travel agents had to pay for new tickets, so that their stranded clients could return to Taiwan, Canway Tours general manager Diana Wang (王采紅) said.
Some travel agencies might go bankrupt because of the huge amount of compensation they have to pay their clients, she said.
Asked if travel agents would collectively boycott FAT flights, Yao said that the Travel Agent Association and his association would not ask their members to do so.
Their members could decide for themselves whether to continue working with FAT, he added.
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