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.
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