The deadly crash of a Taiwanese commuter plane Wednesday has brought back into focus the island's air safety after years of improvement following a series of accidents.
A turboprop aircraft operated by TransAsia Airways Corp. crashed while trying to make its second landing attempt at Penghu's Magong airport off the coast of Taiwan, killing 48 people and injuring nearly a dozen others.
The incident came just days after the world reeled from one of the worst air disasters, involving a Malaysia Airlines jet that went down in Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard, the second disaster for the carrier in five months.
Wednesday's crash of the European-made ATR-72 was TransAsia's third fatal accident involving that aircraft type since 1995, though the carrier's safety record had improved in recent years.
Over the past decade, Taiwan's other airlines have also made substantial gains in safety, following major overhauls to turn around an industry battered by several major crashes in the 1990s and early 2000s, with many involving the island's biggest carrier, China Airlines Ltd.
Before this week's crash, there had been no major fatal accidents for Taiwanese airlines since May 2002, when a Boeing 747 jet operated by China Airlines broke apart about 20 minutes into its flight from Taipei to Hong Kong, and crashed into the sea northwest of Penghu, killing all 225 people on board.
John Chang, a senior vice president at China Airlines' regional unit Mandarin Airlines, said he believes the TransAsia crash was an isolated incident caused in part by adverse weather conditions.
"While we still need to look into the reasons for the second landing attempt, I don't see that there are any systemic problems in our air safety regulatory system," he said.
He said the island's aviation regulator has boosted efforts to supervise airlines to ensure flight safety, leading to a substantial improvement in industry standards.
China Airlines invested heavily to refurbish its image, which had been left tarnished by a poor safety record. In 1998, the airline brought in Germany's Technik AG to overhaul its operations and set new training and safety standards for the airlines.
It also implemented a new system to evaluate crew performance to identify potential threats and minimizing safety-related risks.
TransAsia's ambitious expansion plans are likely to be hurt by Wednesday's crash of Flight 222. The Taipei-based airline is expanding and plans to start a low-cost carrier that would among the island's first.
Marc Wang, an aviation analyst at KGI Securities, said the crash will likely deal a blow to TransAsia's expansion drive and its fundraising capability to fund its fleet expansion.
The reason, according to an official at Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, is that an airline involved in a major crash would usually be banned from participating in international route allocations for a year.
That means TransAsia might not receive permission to operate on new international routes in the foreseeable future, said the official, who declined to be named.
"The incident would put TransAsia at a competitive disadvantage in competing with its Taiwanese peers for more air rights to expand its cross-strait flights and other international services," Mr. Wang said.
The cross-strait route between the island and mainland China—is one of the most profitable for Taiwan's airlines because of growing economic ties between the two regions and China's easing of travel restrictions to the island.
Founded in 1951, TransAsia, a smaller carrier compared with larger rivals China Airlines and EVA Airways Corp., has sought to aggressively expand its network beyond domestic Taiwan routes.
TransAsia's Taipei-traded shares ended Thursday down 5.5%.
"Our top priority is to do everything we can to help the victims and their family members and that we will cooperate with the authorities in carrying out investigation into the incident," said a TransAsia spokeswoman Thursday when asked about the possible restrictions to the airline's expansion plans after the crash.
The carrier, which operates a fleet of Airbus and ATR Turboprop planes, last year promoted Singaporean Hsu Yi-Tsung, a former executive at budget carrier Jetstar Asia, to lead the airline's overseas push.
TransAsia last year got approval from Taiwan's aviation regulator to launch a low-cost airline that would operate flights within a five-hour radius of island, joining an already crowded market.
In 2013, China Airlines also unveiled plans to launch a budget carrier, hoping to link neighboring tourist and business hot spots when it starts service in the fourth quarter of this year.
Source: Wall Street Journal by Joanne Chiu
from China Travel & Tourism News http://ift.tt/1iB6EFm
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