China airlines safety??

[joeirish]

Hi

Apologies if this is the wrong forum - this is my first time posting.

I am travelling to Bangkok from Europe and I have just purchased my ticket on China Airlines. Imagine my schock when I then found a number of posts (about the culture of management of CA on this site) and internet items questioning the safety record of this airline. Should I be worried? Would you travel with China airlines?

Thanks for your advice.

Joe

[birdstrike]

Hi joeirish

Have flown to / from China with both China and China Eastern, and internally with Shanghai Airlines.

All modern aircraft, punctuality was good. Just don't expect too many smiles from the cabin-crew and you might have to listen hard to the cabin announcements!

[joeirish]

Thanks birdstrike for the reply. The aircraft on the AMS-BKK route seem to be older B747s but it was a newer B737 of CA that caught fire recently in Japan. Doesn't inspire confidence.

[heidelberg]

china airlines

My daughter flew a few years ago from Dublin to LHR to Bangkok a short while after the latest China Airlines crash.
She had no problems.

However, check out an excellent article on flight safety of world wide airlines by logging on to http://www.askthepilot.com/airlinesafety.html

[Dragon tracker]

China Airlines and not Air China

Joeirish

China Airlines (CI) is a Taiwanese airline who actually fly via Thailand from AMS to Taipei (TPE). This is part to do with the recognition of Taiwan by International governments.

China Airlines (CI) who fly the AMS to BKK daily on 747-400 aircraft have done so for a long number of years with mostly Brits and Irish pax on the flights.

Their services are reasonable and good value for money. They operate a similar programme to their competitor EVA Air (BR) who happen to do the same operation from LHR and AMS to BKK and onwards to TPE.

CI also happen to operate a frequent freighter 747 operation to MAN.

Air China (AC) are one of the Chinese Airlines that operate to the Chinese Mainland. Beijing from LHR. Their service is not as good as that received on CI.

hope this helps you.

[joeirish]

Hello dragon tracker

Thanks for the reply. I had worked out exactly who China Airlines are but some people use CI and others use CAL as the abreviation. Anyway the main question is are they (China airlines) safe, whichever abreviation is used. They certainly get a bad press and it is very worrying when you read that they have the worst safety record in the aviation industry.

So, I'm still hoping that somebody out there (maybe somebody who is a pilot or other aircrew) can re-assure me on using this company. Or should I proceed with cancelling my tickets?

[akerosid]

CAL has had its problems in the past (and unfortunately, they had an incident a few weeks ago in Okinawa), but they have put a lot of effort into improving their standards and procedures, over the past few years.

I can only speak for myself, but I certainly would not be rushing to cancel. You'll find them quite a good airline to fly with, from a service perspective.

[joniveson]

I considered China Airlines a few months ago from Okinawa to Amsterdam as their fare was by far the cheapest but I think what you have to ask yourself is am I going to be able to relax on their plane for 12 hours or am I going to be sitting there worrying that I'm going to crash for 12 hours? I was having doubts about them and so for my own peace of mind paid a bit extra and chose a different airline.

However, my colleagues who have flown this route with them were impressed with their service and IFE.

[Romeo Delta]

I've heard good and bad about this airline, good obviously about their service, and bad obviously about their safety.

I had tickets to go SYD-TPE-LAX a few years back on them. One day before I was to leave, they had that horrible incident where one of their 747s fell out of the sky (rear pressure bulkhead failed or something like that). I gave in to hysteria and rescheduled with another line. In hindsight, there was no obvious reason to cancel, but I did anyway just for my own peace of mind.

As far as I know, they have been relatively incident free (aside from the recent 738 fire, but that wasn't so much a China Airlines issue as it was a design issue).

Korean also has a pretty bad rep for safety, but I have flown them several times without incident, and their service was pretty good.

So, I guess it's really up to you.

[Eboy]

According to these data, China Airlines has the highest accident rate in the industry, based on the methodology and assumptions shown:

http://planecrashinfo.com/rates.htm

[Oneil]

I flew with them a couple of years ago AMS to BNK. I can easily say it was the most horrendous experience of my life.

We were told that they were ok but as i was travelling and they were the cheapest we thought what the hell. The plane was not only old but absolutely filthy.

A fat french man (20 stone plus) sat in front of my girlfriend- he then proceeded to recline his chair prior to take off which sent the tray crashing into my girlfriends legs cutting her. Upon asking him to move he made no effort to- upon pointing out to the cabin crew that he should be sat up for take off they asked him to sit up- he said no- then they shrugged their shoulders and then said they couldnt make him. I swapped seats and kicked his chair for 12 hours.

We asked to be moved and they said their was no economy left- we could pay to go business if we had £400 each.

IFE did not work during the flight and we got pork and noodles for breakfast.

I would not fly with them again- but the again some people may have had a wonderful time with them.

[BASLF]

I can't quite believe these answers! The original poster was concerned about the safety record of this airline and asked whether others on the board would be worried about flying with them. Some here are answering the question on the basis of the IFE, cabin crew cheerfulness and the food!

To answer the question asked, I would always be worried about flying an airline with a poor safety record.

[Oneil]

well i do apologise