China Sets New Standard for Air Passengers Before Olympics

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by Heiky | July 31, 2008 at 12:26 pm
1090 views | 9 Recommendations | 30 comments

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China is once again lifting the standards before the Games, and this time it is targeted towards air passengers who causes trouble. China will be punishing airlines whose passengers refuse to disembark or misbehave and protest when experiencing problems like delayed flights. The Olympics is just days away and the airport will soon handle about 20 percent more traffic than normal. The airline staff will not be able to handle another headache on top of the increased traffic.

Deputy head of the civil aviation regulator, Yang Guoqing, said enough was enough after numerous warnings to airlines to treat their passengers better appeared to have failed.

"We will severely punish airlines which experience aircraft occupations and other incidents as a result of service reasons which originate with the airline," Yang told a news conference.

"These measures include cancelling slots at corresponding busy airports."

Source: reuters.com

This ban is quite reasonable due to previous incidents. There were cases where the police were brought in to keep the peace after passengers tried to storm aircrafts due to frustrations with abrupt diversions and cancellations. Passengers in the past had also refused to gett off the aircraft in protest over delayed arrivals. This might be problematic since delays may happen when atheletes and visitors arrive since thunderstorms often stike Beijing over the summer.

During last year's Spring Festival, riot police had to be called to Beijing airport after passengers angry at fog-related delays roughed up airline staff, attacked service counters and tried to storm grounded aircraft.

Former chief regulator Yang Yuanyuan told Reuters late last year that the threat of thunderstorms in August could be a big headache for air traffic controllers and passengers alike.

Source: reuters.com

They are trying to keep passengers more informed about the delays to minimize problems.

Yang said customers must also be kept better informed about delays, especially those caused by bad weather, a big issue in China.

"If there is bad weather, for example, we will tell the media to publicize it so that passengers can be informed ahead of time and avoid long waits at airports due to the weather," he added.

Source: reuters.com


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JeffHuang
JeffHuang

at 17:12 on July 31st, 2008

It is pretty chaotic there. When I went to shaghai from Hong Kong, lots of people didn't follow the rules and safety measures. When we were about to land (still in the air, close to the ground) people started undoing their seatbelts and grabbing their luggage from the overhead hoping they can be the first ones to exit. Don't get me started on the cellphone usage on the planes there. I am in no way overgeneralizing them. This is just from the experience I had there.

0
Frankie Fan
Frankie Fan

at 18:35 on July 31st, 2008

good photo...

Frankie Fan has contributed a photo to this story.

0
pnajduk
pnajduk

at 18:39 on July 31st, 2008

This airport was enormous...Never seen something so elaborate.

pnajduk has contributed a photo to this story.

0
cullen_kasunic
cullen_kasunic

at 18:56 on July 31st, 2008

Scale model of the new airport

cullen_kasunic has contributed a photo to this story.

0
kiwiexplorer
kiwiexplorer

at 19:34 on July 31st, 2008

These new Airports in both Shanghai & Beijing are fabulous. They are attractive user friendly Airports with wide open spaces & a vast amount of amenities, particularly the new Beijing Airport. The only criticism I would make is that in Beijing your bags take an incredibly long time to arrive on the belt, this will be a problem during the Olympics & if they do not become more efficient in this area it is likely to cause chaos! I also noted that on flights within China people are frantically unbuckling their seatbelts & even standing up before the Aircraft has docked at the gate & certainly before the flight crew have announced that it is OK to do so. Perhaps the environment in these wonderful new Airports is designed to relax people, lets hope so with the throughput of people there in the next few weeks!!

kiwiexplorer has contributed a photo to this story.

Barbara McPherson
Barbara McPherson
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 20:47 on July 31st, 2008

Heiky, I like this story. It's good stuff.  It sounds like you'd better be fit to fly in China!

azzayindia
azzayindia
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 21:05 on July 31st, 2008

Heiky, I like this story. It's good stuff.

0
Laws0n
Laws0n

at 23:06 on July 31st, 2008

Laws0n has contributed a photo to this story.

0
mfilliau
mfilliau

at 23:07 on July 31st, 2008

beijing opening its great Terminal 3 designed by Sir Foster :-)

mfilliau has contributed a photo to this story.

0
andytaylor123456
andytaylor123456

at 00:45 on August 1st, 2008

It didn't seem that chaotic to me.  The place was empty when I was there.  Here's a picture of all the catering trucks lined up at Beijing Airport.

andytaylor123456 has contributed a photo to this story.

0
antyeung
antyeung

at 01:23 on August 1st, 2008

China's new Beijing Capital Airport just opened a few months in advance of the Beijing Olympics. Surprisingly spacious and well organised. Lots of amenities before immigration, but after immigration there are still rooms for improvements.

antyeung has contributed a photo to this story.

0
phyllisimage
phyllisimage

at 03:09 on August 1st, 2008

I went to Beijing 3 weeks before the Olympic, working on a Travel Guide Book for Beijing, surprisely to see the big differents, the outlook is just like Hong Kong International Airport, it is because they use the same designer! Quite impressive, energy saving design, red pillars stand outs the traditional China architecture style. China...always...hardware better than software. Chinese still have a long way to go.

phyllisimage has contributed a photo to this story.

0
chrisinch
chrisinch

at 07:05 on August 1st, 2008

I traveled to Beijing on June 30, and never experienced any problems at the airport. You could definitely see the smog when landing though. (Or perhaps I should rephrase: You couldn't see anything other than smog.)

chrisinch has contributed a photo to this story.

0
moctavio
moctavio

at 08:41 on August 1st, 2008

As I walked in to check in at Beijing aiport, I was awed by the structured and took out my phone to take this picture. Very impressive.

moctavio has contributed a photo to this story.

0
shufflestep
shufflestep

at 08:51 on August 1st, 2008

The Beijing Airport was a beautiful introduction to China when I arrived for a visit in April - shiny, new & impeccably clean.

shufflestep has contributed a photo to this story.

0
fitziane
fitziane

at 10:07 on August 1st, 2008

The new airport is extremely beautiful. This photo is just a detail of a beautiful pavillion with benches and a carp pond. We wandered happily through the while waiting for our flight in June, and hardly noticed the wait. Our flight was an early morning one and so perhaps that's why we enjoyed an almost meditative tranquility then. We're returning on August 18 and it will probably be a different story.

fitziane has contributed a photo to this story.

0
brimccarthy
brimccarthy

at 13:56 on August 1st, 2008

I found the new Beijing airport to be sleek, advanced and gorgeous. We arrived around 4 AM and had the place to ourselves- as you can see.

brimccarthy has contributed a photo to this story.

0
plaktoz
plaktoz

at 20:02 on August 1st, 2008

This photo was took on my second half of flight from Singapore to JFK airport with Peking as the transit point.

plaktoz has contributed a photo to this story.

0
Scott Zhou
Scott Zhou

at 10:23 on August 2nd, 2008

As my remember, this photo took at 10 AM one day in June. Of course it's before Olympics & I don't feel the luggage is late shown on the belt. I think everything is on it's way. See! So many luggage barrow is no one using. Beijing welcome you to close it. Thanks.

Scott Zhou has contributed a photo to this story.

0
Kikakiku
Kikakiku

at 12:23 on August 2nd, 2008

Very haphazard electronic cigarette lighter in the smokers' "lounge" at the new Terminal 3 of Beijing International Airport. It's not actually a lounge as such as there are no seating in there and minimal ventilation so the room stunk even though there was only one person inside.

Kikakiku has contributed a photo to this story.

Bi Yun
Bi Yun
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:41 on August 2nd, 2008

I just came back from a year of study in China. The airport problem occur more with domestic flight than international flight. I haven't witness any protest but I have noticed some safety issues occur within the airplane. It's very true about passenger getting up and grabbing their luggage as soon as the aircraft landed. The cellphone is another problem, no one seems to care. And once the plane is dock everyone just rush out not giving way to other passengers this in turn delaying everyone from leaving the aircraft.

0
Dave_Bonnett
Dave_Bonnett

at 16:04 on August 3rd, 2008

I was very impressed with the Beijing Airport. It was striking that the lighting was almost completely by natural light. This has to be a huge energy saving and would be great to see in more buildings of all sizes around the world.

BTW the new international terminal in Mexico City also makes extensive use of natural lighting and is likewise very modern and attractive.

Dave_Bonnett has contributed a photo to this story.

0
jldeesine
jldeesine

at 14:09 on August 4th, 2008

enjoy

jldeesine has contributed a photo to this story.

0
Titom
Titom (not verified)

at 15:55 on August 4th, 2008

Hey,

I just discovered nowpublic.com.

Concerning the airport, I have to admit it's a really big one. And it is much more nice and cleaner than Paris CDG Airport.

When my passport was checked, I saw I could vote to give my opinion (from bad to good service). This cleary shows the willing of going toward quality. Good point for them.

However, I hope waiters in cofee shops will be ready to welcome many people in the same time during Olympic games. It took three waiters and 10 minutes to calcul the amount of the bill when I came there 3 month ago and I have to tell that we were more patient than the average tourist. Anyway, I'm sure they will make it :-)

0
T.h.o.m.a.s
T.h.o.m.a.s

at 16:02 on August 4th, 2008

Hey,

I just discovered nowpublic.com.

Concerning the airport, I have to admit it's a really big one. And it is much more nice and cleaner than Paris CDG Airport.

When my passport was checked, I saw I could vote to give my opinion (from bad to good service). This cleary shows the willing of going toward quality. Good point for them.

However, I hope waiters in cofee shops will be ready to welcome many people in the same time during Olympic games. It took three waiters and 10 minutes to calcul the amount of the bill when I came there 3 month ago and I have to tell that we were more patient than the average tourist. Anyway, I'm sure they will make it :-)

0
todbaker
todbaker

at 20:24 on August 7th, 2008

Travelers can enjoy spacious comfort and a variety of restaurants in T3.

todbaker has contributed a photo to this story.

0
suli
suli

at 05:31 on August 8th, 2008

I stayed 5 hours in Beijing's new terminal, waiting for a link to Tokyo, and it was huge. I am sure it can hold massive traffic. One thing that annoyed me a little is how long they took to check our passport. There were 10 stands to check passports, but only 3 were really working (it was very early in the morning, i may say). There were at least 2 people per stand, and they took about 2 minutes per person to check his or her passport. They looked at the picture, then to the person, then to the picture, and to the person again and again. I tried to speak to a friend who had already passed the checking and the police man immediately told me to shut up. Apart from the passport staff, people were very nice. Shop assistants were very kind and helpful, too.

suli has contributed a photo to this story.

0
michelangelo202
michelangelo202

at 13:06 on August 8th, 2008

This is an amazing airport. I admire and appreciate the magnificent architecture.

michelangelo202 has contributed a photo to this story.

0
laserhe
laserhe

at 05:59 on August 16th, 2008

train station of Terminal 3 of Beijing international airport

laserhe has contributed a photo to this story.

0
tjyoung57
tjyoung57

at 15:47 on August 18th, 2008

China's new airport is beautiful, spacious and convienient for the traveler. Here is a beautiful mock-up of a Chinese wall.

tjyoung57 has contributed a photo to this story.

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First Flagged at 8:47 PM, Jul 31, 2008 by Barbara McPherson
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