Aviation authority denies pilot strike reports

BEIJING—China’s aviation watchdog denied media reports on Friday of a recent alleged pilot strike, insisting a severe weather condition was to blame for the flight returns on Monday.
Recent media reports said pilots flying 14 to 18 China Eastern Airlines routes refused to land and returned to their departure points during regional flights in the southwestern Yunnan Province on Monday.
The number of affected passengers was not immediately available. Sources within both the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and the airline’s Yunnan branch told Xinhua it was the severe windy weather that had forced the flights to return, rejecting media reports of a pilot strike.
CAAC also denied reports of an emergency meeting held by the administration that said it mulled life bans for pilots who were responsible for organizing the alleged strike. Pilots refused to disclose any details of the incidents.
Beijing-based Caijing magazine quoted a CAAC publicity official on Friday, saying the administration would not punish pilots and continued efforts were being made to ensure future flights went smoothly to protect passenger interests.
This week, media reports said a pilot strike loomed large in China as 40 Shanghai Airlines pilots had called in sick at the same time on March 14. At the newly-founded Wuhan East Star Airline, 11 pilots asked for sick leave on March 28. Sources within the involved airlines were not available to confirm the incidents.
The Beijing-based Caijing reported the alleged strike action aimed to call for better treatment of pilots and urged the airlines to improve management, quoting a source close to the reported case.
Zhu Wenchuan, an expert on aviation security, said Chinese pilots had experienced increasing workloads of late, but stagnant wage rises. In addition, the management system of some domestic airlines limited pilots’ personal development.
China has 12,000 pilots. Official figures predicted the total number of flights would increase 80 percent by 2010, meaning 6,500 more pilots were required. It generally costs a Chinese airline about 700,000 yuan (US$100,000) to 1.8 million yuan to train a pilot.
Official figures showed that the annual flights in China rose from 896,000 in 2003 to 1.62 million in 2007, up more than 15 percent year on year. However, flights delay has also become a long-time headache for passengers in the country.
The new version of flights punctuality measuring method came into effect on March 30 to replace the old version compiled in 2003, in a bid to improve the accuracy and authenticity of the statistics.
The compilation of the new version of measuring method was on the basis of a research since the end of 2006 on the lessons accumulated by major domestic airlines and air traffic management bureaus nationwide. The CAAC also vowed in January to take various measures to reduce flight delays and improve the airline services this year. Chinese airways handled 123,332 flights in February, 6,423 more than the number in January. According to the CAAC, flight passengers rose 9.8 percent year on year in February to 15.03 million. Freight and mail volume increased 5 percent to 255,828 tonnes.

—Xinhua