A former China Airlines (CAL, 中華航空) pilot has accused the airline of illegally blacklisting him as a passenger until 2100, after he allegedly criticized the company.
The pilot, surnamed Wang (王), told the Chinese-language Apple Daily that he left CAL 10 years ago when his contract expired and now works for a South Korean airline.
However, while he was with CAL, Wang set up a blog and posted critical remarks about what he said were the company’s safety problems, which at one point upset the airline’s management.
He later took down the blog to avoid hurting his wife’s career at China Airlines, he said.
Wang told the Apple Daily that he was not aware that he was banned from CAL flights until November last year, when he bought a ticket using his Zonal Employee Discount, which allows airline employees around the world to purchase reduced-rate tickets on different carriers.
When he arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and showed a counter clerk his booking number, he was told he could not board the flight because he had been blacklisted by CAL.
He bought CAL tickets in May and last month directly from the airline’s Web site and secured booking numbers both times, but was again informed at airport check-in counters that he was barred from the flights, he said.
CAL said Wang’s continued comments on its handling of safety issues have damaged its reputation, so it decided to deny him access to its flights.
Wang said that he did not know what comments the airline was referring to, adding that he had only said that he had trouble resting one time during a flight assignment due to jetlag and needed to muster all his energy to land the plane.
“CAL did not inform me about the ban with any official notice. Nor did it respond to my letters of inquiry. Instead, it has investigated my personal information and informed all of its airport counters to block me without following due procedures,” he told the Apple Daily.
“Even people with a criminal record are entitled to buy tickets and board flights. CAL’s authority exceeds that of the police and prosecutors,” he said.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said government regulations do not cover airlines’ blacklists, but airlines are entitled to ban certain passengers if they have reason to believe that such passengers would affect flight safety, such as those on the terror watch lists, and this is clearly stated in airlines’ transport contracts with passengers.
However, this does not appear to be the case with Wang’s complaint, the agency said.
Officials would ask CAL to provide an official explanation for its rationale in barring Wang from boarding its flights, the agency said.
Consumer Protection Committee Deputy Director Wu Cheng-hsueh (吳政學) said that the airline should seek restitution from Wang if it thinks his comments had hurt its reputation.
The airline should not use such rationale as the basis for banning a passenger from its flights, he said.
Wang can file a complaint with consumer protection authorities, who would then request CAA’s assistance in resolving the dispute, Wu said.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS