The pandemic changed everything for the airline industry, which went into recession for two years. Pilots' incomes went down 10% to 40%, so did flight attendants' incomes, and losses were widen.
Last year, one of the "big three" airlines[1] recovered 100MMs RMB of revenue through selling pilots. Yep, selling pilots in stock, literally asking them to find jobs elsewhere. The airline industry is in a mess now, but the public doesn't know.
Young pilots complaining that they won't be able to make their mortgage payments; Low morale in the industry. Much higher attrition rates. What do they all mean for an industry that relies on safety?
1. A Qingdao Airlines aircraft ran over a ground crew staff [2]
2. Runway excursion for a China Eastern aircraft in ZLYL [3]
3. Landing gear pins were left not removed on a Lucky Air aircraft (subsidiary of Hainan Airlines) [4]
4. Cracked windshield on a Juneyao Air aircraft [5]
Those all happened within a year. Chinese civil aviation has never had a safety track record as bad as this. People in the industry feel very bad for such shameful moment.
But what would happen next? No idea. Everyone is waiting for that flight with the unlucky ones.
Translator notes:
* Original post was posted on Feb 20, 2022.
[1] Air China, China Southern, China Eastern
[2] Jan 24, 2022 https://www.sohu.com/a/519204416_123753
[3] Feb 11, 2022 https://news.sina.com.cn/o/2022-02-11/doc-ikyakumy5439933.sh...
[4] Feb 16, 2022 https://www.sohu.com/a/523129276_260616
[5] Feb 20, 2022 https://www.sohu.com/a/524074118_120388781
Would love to have read it though, thanks for sharing.
There is screenshot left.
https://www.zhihu.com/question/517618431/answer/2356205623
This post is from 2022.02.20. It says that Chinese airlines have showed terrible security risks since COVID, because COVID creates great losses for airline industry. At the end of the post, it says that deadly accidenty is abound to happen.
Last air crash from Chinese airlines was 2010.
The crashed site is not far away from my hometown. RIP.