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Airline service still has way to go
By Xin Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-04-02 11:17

China's aviation industry is taking steps to attract discontented domestic consumers.

It unveiled its latest reform plans last month, increasing the maximum discount rate on the face price of tickets from 40 to 45 per cent.

Aviation authorities explained that the adjustment was because of recent changes in oil supply and other factors that have slightly reduced the cost of air flights.

Whether the discounts are truly the result of lower flight costs or in response to rising consumer complaints about fixed ticket prices, the move reflects the fact that aviation authorities are paying more attention to market forces in setting policies.

The aviation sector will take another equally welcome step - a "Punctuality Plan" - starting from this month.

Whether air flights are punctual depends on the service capacity of airlines as well as non-human factors, such as the influence of weather.

Given the fact that a flight is a complicated process subject to not a few uncertainties, consumers generally understand that it would be unreasonable to expect airlines to be precisely on time all the time.

But consumers are often infuriated by unbearably long delays - of several hours in extreme cases.

Even more frustrating, consumers complain that they are not informed of changes in flight times and are not properly looked after. This includes such things as meals and lodging, and compensation for expenses incurred by altered itineraries.

Last year, consumers filed 626 complaints with aviation authorities, 42.4 per cent of them about punctuality.

The latest move to ensure punctuality shows that the aviation authorities have begun to react positively to consumers' calls for better service. Previously, high prices were consumers' top concern.

According to the plan, airlines are required to reach a punctuality rate of 80 per cent, the international benchmark. Currently, 79.4 of per cent of the country's planes are on time.

If because of human factors flights fail to take off on time, the airlines should inform the consumers of the exact reasons and compensate them for delays and expenses incurred.

If the delay is four hours, food and lodging must be provided; if more than five hours, consumers must be recompensed 50 per cent of the ticket price; if the delay exceeds 10 hours, they must be compensated the full ticket price.

This is said to be the international practice.

It is encouraging that domestic enterprises are increasingly aware of those international practices that respect consumers.

If it is strictly observed, it will be welcomed by consumers, not only because of the economic compensation, but also because it shows respect for consumer rights.

However, the "Punctuality Plan" leaves a lot of room for fudging by including the open-ended term "non-human factors." What are the criteria for distinguishing human from non-human factors? The plan does not make this clear.

Weather and air traffic control are two obvious factors. But what if delay occurs because airline service crews fail to prevent or straighten out "mechanical problems" in a timely way? The failure would be invisible to passengers and airline companies could pronounce they made adequate efforts to fix the problem.

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