Travel warning issued after budget airline delay
China's central tourism authority has issued a warning about Bangkok-based budget airline Jet Asia Airways after 235 passengers were stranded at the Thai beach resort of Phuket on their way to the northern Chinese city of Shenyang .
The China National Tourism Administration "recommends passengers choose this airline with caution", it said in a notice following the unexplained cancellation of a flight to Shenyang at the end of last month.
The notice also put the onus on travel agencies to book flights through "qualified suppliers" and to foot the bill should their customers' flights be cancelled while outside the country.
Despite lower fares, some mainland travel agencies said they were wary of booking with newer budget carriers. Jet Asia was established in 2009.
"China's biggest travel agencies seldom have cooperation with these low-cost carriers because we need to ensure stable and good prices and services for tourists," Ge Lei, spokesman at China Youth Travel Service Group, one of the mainland's three largest travel agencies, told the South China Morning Post.
"We see a growing demand for cheaper air travel in China, but ... we are still careful when it comes to new budget carriers."
Xinhua said in a report on Saturday that the company had experienced delays over the past six months. The Shenyang Evening News said the delayed flights at the end of September left passengers "eating instant noodles for 40 hours" and that Jet Asia compensated them with 300 yuan (HK$381) per head.
Requests by the Post for comment from the airline went unanswered yesterday.
Passengers on the mainland's domestic airlines often suffer long, unexplained delays.
Military exercises across the country's eastern seaboard in July caused widespread flight delays or cancellations for up to three weeks. The flight capacity of Shanghai's two major airports was cut by 65 per cent on some days.
Some delays to domestic flights have ended in brawls that were captured on video and later posted to the internet.
SCMP....Monday, 13 October, 2014