Mon, Jul 01, 2002 page3

• China Airlines reaping rewards despite being the world's worst

  • By Richard Dobson / STAFF REPORTER
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  China Airlines Co (CAL,中華航空), despite being the world's deadliest carrier, is being rewarded by the government instead of reprimanded for its appalling safety record.

  Over the weekend the government displayed dubious judgement in allocating the additional 16 weekly flights up for grabs between Taiwan and Hong Kong to CAL's subsidiary Mandarin Airlines (華信).

  And in what was intended as a show of support for the beleaguered airline President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), lifted off for his first foreign visit aboard a CAL jet, breaking his tradition of flying exclusively with EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空).

  It begs the question: why is the government supporting an airline whose inability to improve its safety record has seen 801 people killed on CAL's flights over the last 30 years?

  Of course the most obvious answer is that the government-run China Aviation Development Fund (航發基金) owns a 71-percent stake in the company and appoints all the top management.

  Such favoritism has never been more abhorrently clear nor so tragically misplaced.

  In awarding Mandarin Airlines the 16 weekly Hong Kong flights, which had been slated for CAL prior to its disqualification under Taiwan law due to its May 25 crash, the government claimed it was making a decision based purely on the flight safety and service records of Taiwan's six carriers.

  It had been assumed that because TransAsia Airways (復興航空) operates the Macao route and UNI Airways Corp (立榮航空) and Mandarin would be excluded as their parent companies EVA Airways and CAL already service the Hong Kong route, that Far East Air Transport Corp (遠東航空) would have been the likely beneficiary.

  But Jan Jyh-horng (詹志宏), a senior official and air pact negotiator for the Mainland Affairs Council, told the Taipei Times yesterday that Mandarin won the prize as the government considered it an independent company and found it was the best qualified of the nation's remaining airlines.

  "Mandarin is an independent company and the Civil Aeronautics Administration evaluated its safety record to be the best and its services to the outlying islands such as Kinmen and Penghu to be admirable," Jan said.

  Mandarin does have an untarnished record and since its merger with Formosa Airlines (國華航空) in 1999, it has operated the loss-making routes to the outlying islands as a favor to the government.

  But it is hardly an independent airline. CAL owns 90 percent of the company, and it also provides roughly half of the carrier's maintenance services and appoints all of the airline's top management slots.

  Nicholas Ionides, Asia editor for Flight International also failed to see the distinction between Mandarin and CAL, saying the decision between the Hong Kong and Taiwan negotiators was aimed at keeping the route in the hands of the current operators.

  "It's an extremely lucrative route so none of the existing players really wanted to see an independent third airline come in," he said.

  By following the keep-it-in-the-family tradition, Cathay Pacific's all cargo subsidiary Air Hong Kong (華明航空) was permitted to begin flying 400 tonnes of cargo along the route every week.

  Alex Shih (施建華), spokesman for Far East Air, said he was shocked at the decision and said the government had ignored Mandarin's intimate relationship with CAL and the damning overall flight safety issues associated with the parent carrier.

  The numbers agree.

  According to data compiled from Flight International, Conde Nast Traveler, the New York Times, ICAO and the US National Transportation Safety Board by Web site Airsafe.com, CAL has the highest fatality rate in the world.

  Since 1970, CAL has experienced 10 fatal accidents trailing only Indian Airlines and American Airlines with 12 apiece. However CAL's overall body count of 801 outstrips Indian's 616. Indeed by flying a CAL A340-300 to Africa, President Chen's odds of being involved in a fatal accident are 1 in 228,417 as opposed to 1 in 8.2 million if he played it safe and flew an EVA 747-400, according to the Web site amigoingdown.com -- nearly 36 times as likely.

  The government's motivation for awarding Mandarin the flights was given some additional illumination by Jan who said that the underhand tactics of the local airlines vying for the route ruled them out of consideration.

  "Certain airlines used legislators and pressure from Beijing in an attempt to influence the decision. They tried to circumvent the law and use politics to gain an advantage," Jan said.

  "This kind of company shouldn't be allowed to exist in our society," said Jan, suggesting that a major factor in the decision was these underhand tactics.

  Other sources said physical threats were made against negotiators by unnamed airline executives demanding their companies be awarded the "golden route," along which ticket sales generate in excess of US$750 million annually.

  While such actions are deplorable, they shouldn't play a prominent role in decision making at the international level. Especially if at the end of the day the government awards an airline whose safety record surely warrants its operating license being cancelled.
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