tris06

Well lets see how it goes. Some good news for CI is they should see more demand on BNE -AKL-BNE from March 2018.
Emirates is pulling all their 380 flights from Brisbane and Melborne to AKL. Thats a lot of seats. And even the EK boss mentioned and said airlines like CI were putting too much pressure for them to sustain an A380 flight. Qantas will upgrade aircraft size on this route but even they admit it wont make up for the number of seats coming off without the EK A380 daily flight.

Maybe BR will enter the market as well?

hayzel7773

Far Eastern Transport(FAT) is facing some trouble. Airline is currently in the process of appealing a financial mismanagement fine(at NT$3 million) with the MOTC and are facing an addition $3 million dollar fine after two planes collided at TSA. The incident resulted in massive delays for thousands of pax at TSA because FAT had no other plane to substitute in.

Financial mismanagement fine was only NT $600k in 1Q17 but rose to $3 million in 2Q17 after the CAA found that FAT continuously failed to reduce its financial risks.

The parent company is also in some trouble, it had to secure a $2.2 billion dollar loan from a bank in order to keep its affiliate companies afloat!

https://chinapost.nownews.com/20171018-158394
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiw.../18/2003678673

hayzel7773

Expect massive delays on Nov. 1 as airport returns to single-runway operations that day. They will be fixing a crack that is 9 meters long that was recently discovered by mx personnel during a runway inspection. The operation is scheduled to last 16 hours and will have a devastating effect on schedules.



http://focustaiwan.tw/news/asoc/201710250008.aspx

hayzel7773

CI president quoted as saying that they will be ordering 20 narrowbody by the end of the year and are looking to expand service to Southeast Asia. Airline is looking at A320/321 NEO and 737Max. Airline is reporting that they have raised prices for semiconductor shipping due to the high demand. Planes are booked till end of 1st quarter 2018.

http://m.gulf-times.com/story/568641...-order-20-jets

coolfish1103

CI TPE-HNL vv is now operating with 359 and on days where NRT-TPE is not operating (now to be operated on a seasonal schedule from 2017/8 Winter), the HNL-TPE flight will return 7 hours earlier and not stay on tarmac in HNL.

CI 0001 HNL-TPE 1605-2120+1 359 10JAN18-21MAR18

tris06

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...china-airlines

A pretty average article i read but it did include this...

"CAL took delivery of its first Airbus A350 almost a year ago, and has turned much of its focus toward Europe, where its services have averaged a load factor of some 90 percent. "

An average load factor of 90% is really good. Yields may not be that great but surely they are making decent profits then on these routes. Maybe its these load factors that BR is after. Still no mention about the A350 top up order (options) I wonder if they will decide to take any more frames after the last delivery in 2018. At this stage they have only 5 more planes that will be arriving in the fleet. (I think the 9th CI a350 was just delivered/being delivered).

hayzel7773

Far Eastern has come under the spotlight yet again. When the parent company released 1H17 Financial Results, it was discovered by the CAA that FAT has been put down as collateral for a $2.2 Billion dollar loan taken at the beginning of the year due to the financial downturn of the parent company and its other affiliates. Management claims this is "normal behavior".

FAT Management is also being accused to harassing flight attendants and forcing them to become waitresses for company events(asking them to help pour the water, alcohol, and drinks for the table of executive management/travel agency heads/managers when it was supposed to be their break time). They have also been accused of making derogatory comments towards flight attendants during the "on-ground meal service". The union has also released a long series of photos of the companies "fixes" to its aircraft(basically taped up water leaks etc., can be seen at 1:41). When flight attendants complained that the salary was too low, the company told them to sell more duty free as a way to get more money(FAT base pay is only about 1/3 of EVA and CI and per diem/flight hour pay is abysmal). Those who refused to do the waitress activities or continued to complain were fired. This was all released in a video that the Taoyuan Flight Attendant Union made. Cabin Crew are preparing for a second sick-off at this point. The turnover rate is so high for such a small airline that the airline has barely any(if any at all) standby staff. Pilots are also leaving at an alarming rate for the airline. CAA cited lack of crew as one reason why so many flights were cancelled.

The CAA has also implemented additional flight hour restrictions on the MD80, now capped at 1350 hours a month. FAT has begged the government to not do so, but the CAA said they were left with no choice after two planes collided at TSA. FAT then claimed that they needed a bigger hangar(current one is too small, restricting mx activities) but the CAA responded by informing them that they had the biggest hangar of all the airlines at TSA.

Last month, FAT had a record 187 cancellations of flights due to mechanical issues(airline claims it is because of flight hour restriction but CAA does not). They were cited multiple times for fixes that were inappropriate(they taped paper towels over a leak for one flight). The CAA is deciding whether to add on to the current fines for the excessive cancellations. Flight restrictions do not apply to the two new ATR-72s. FAT says it needs 6 years to replace the aging fleet and has pleaded with the CAA to give them a 3-year buffer period but the CAA has done nothing except refer the matter to the legislative yuan. Just recently, the Legislative Yuan scrutinized the CAA in how it plans on dealing with FAT and its issues and to make sure that if the airline were to collapse, plans would be in place to ensure minimal disruption.

FAT has complained that if this continues, the airline will no longer be sustainable in the long run.

There are also rumors circling around that the FAT parent group(and FAT CEO Chang Kang-Wei) is looking for an exit from the aviation industry and giving the airline up.

Union Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K0D...ature=youtu.be
(Chinese Only)

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiw.../24/2003680944

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiw.../26/2003681074

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/.../24/2003680913

hayzel7773

Loads for EVAs BR Europe flights(via BKK) are also phenomenal.

hayzel7773

China Airlines is once again facing serious labor issues.

The China Airlines Employee Union held leadership elections back in May and the TFAU(Flight Attendants Union) managed to snag most of the positions available. Now, the CAEU is negotiating for better rights for ground staff, ramp staff, mx personnel, and other positions in the union. The union is back to its smear campaign of claiming management is stalking them online, stalking their communications, making passive aggressive threats, and harassing union members through disciplinary commissions. This had led to contentious back and forth between the two parties.

CI Management also recently abolished the use of gloves when flight attendants are collecting trash unless the flight attendant has an exemption because of health or safety reasons. A Kaoshiung-based Flight attendant began to develop rashes after collecting trash without gloves and was advised by the China Airlines contracted doctor to use gloves when collecting trash to prevent the reaction from getting worse. However, when he started using the gloves again, management told him to take it off and only put it on if he develops rashes again. After several warnings not to wear gloves, Mr. Pan was written up and put in front of a disciplinary commission, where he was transferred off the line and put into a ground staff position. The union is planning on suing CI to reinstate this gentleman, claiming the pay difference is in excess of NT$20000 a month.

username

Is CI trying to save money by not letting the FAs use gloves? I personally prefer it when the FAs use gloves - it makes me feel somewhat better that they care about cleanness.

hayzel7773

They claim it was to better portray the "service image" that they want. I guess they looked tacky? BR certainly does not use gloves for trash. Gloves are only used for cleaning the bathroom and for food prep.

tris06

The unions can make all the noise they want. Nothing much is going to happen with pay increases and etc now the DPP has their own man in the top job.

So unions would rather increase salaries and then let the company become unprofitable as compared to those next door with BR staff are getting paid less and therefore can beat CI on costs. Do they really think the government will back them as at the end of the day if CI is to survive under that arrangement then the government better be ready to hand 1 or 2 billion TWD min each year to prop up the airline to keep them running.

A few months ago they were complaining about the hourly stipend they get while overseas as the airline sometimes offered then 48hrs off which was reduced to 24hrs which is still within the rules. Umm nothing happened with that.

Unions are important but often these days they push too far.

coolfish1103

May I suggest that you post the pro and opposition side of the news that indicates the side of the FA or Union and CI management? It would give a more clearer picture for those to read.

The FA's should have gone on another strike last week when Tsai Ing Wen was on the trip to Hawaii. Not sure many will support them though.

I am with tris06, they are pushing this too far. If the job requires one to not wear a plastic wrap when serving meals, then you don't wear it. BR, JL, NH and many other airline staff don't wear it, it's not industry standard. One having an allergy does not mean the company must cater to you and make everyone wear plastic wraps, the company has other options.

It's not like CI use to wear plastic wrap when serving meals and then just decided not to do it recently. They never used plastic wrap in the past for serving meals and probably only tried out wearing the plastic wrap for couple weeks for him before reversing the decision. Do note that CI does allow the use of plastic wraps for other duties such as cleaning the toilet.

I am certain this FA can arrange with his companions and be the one who stays in the galley and not do cart services. However, he wanted to make a big deal out of it and instead CI changes his job due to inability to serve duty. Then he is angry cause he no longer gets the flying stipend and everything cause he is now a ground staff.

tris06

The unions are probably also pushing harder because business is going well so the unions think their members are not benefiting from the boon. If so they seem to have very short term memory which the airline business for passengers and cargo can be great one day then poor the next. Let CI make some decent profit for a change the shareholders I don't think made any money out of this airline the last 5/6 years. Plus hopefully with the profits they can use some of it on positioning the airline to better improve services like the average lounge service recently.

By the way it makes perfect sense why they made the supreme lounge an all business class lounge since they closed the old lounge near terminal 4.
Maybe I am giving myself some false hope that the new exclusive area will be much bigger (taking up the whole top floor section) and will have a couple of showers and maybe just maybe will have that nice massage chair room (was great to take a nap in) like the supreme lounge before.

coolfish1103

I think you are giving yourself a false hope cause everything has been downgrades, whether it's outsource or complete removal.

The lounge at D4 is currently still open, but I am certain that there will be chaos when that closes.