Northwest Airlines operates one flight, daily, from Shanghai’s Pudong Airport: Flight 26, to Tokyo Narita. On Tuesday morning I arrived at the airport two hours before flight 26’s scheduled departure and took my place in the very long check-in cue that snakes in front of the Northwest counters. Ahead of me, I could see that…
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Chinese Security Begets Shanghai Hospitality.
Last month, in advance of the Olympics, the Chinese civil aviation authorities implemented many of the same (sometimes silly) post-9/11 airport security restrictions that have plagued US travelers for nearly six years. Among these is a ban on cigarette lighters enforced at the security check. US fliers will be familiar with the routine: arrive at…
Shanghai Pudong: Same as it ever was!
I was out of China when, two weeks ago, the Shanghai Airport Authority announced that it was immediately implementing new, Olympics-related security procedures at the city’s two airports. Nothing in the reported accounts of these procedures indicated that they were directed at incoming passengers. But, keeping in mind that these regulations come in the wake…
The Agent in Economy
Last night, twenty minutes before Thai Airways Flight 664 from Bangkok to Shanghai Pudong was scheduled to land, a pleasant female voice came over the intercom to remind passengers that: “It is illegal to take photos over China, or in Chinese airports.” This was the first international flight that I’ve taken into China since mid-March,…
Flying the Subsidized Skies.
[Get out your calculators] How is it possible that all five of the major US airlines were unprofitable last quarter – while Air China managed to see its profits climb 147%, to RMB 1.04 billion (US$149 million)? There were undoubtedly a range of factors at play, but the one that I’d like to touch on…
What’s a disgruntled Chinese airline pilot supposed to do?
On March 31 and April 1, eighteen (some reports say seventeen) China Eastern flights departed Kunming with passengers, baggage, and cargo, flew around in circles, and then landed … in Kunming, leaving the passengers stranded and furious. [UPDATE 4/8: Xinhua now reports that twenty-one flights were turned around.] Now, what on earth could drive a…
Terminal (3) Operations.
Chalk it up to my declining powers of perception, but yesterday I somehow managed to fly through Beijing Capitol Airport’s massive new terminal 3 building (986,000 square meters!) without knowing – or noticing – that it was the super-structure’s first fully operational day (h/t to Micah for pointing it out). In my defense: the terminal…
What’s safer than sitting on the sofa?
Flying in China, apparently. According to Xinhua: China’s civil aviation industry achieved a clean sheet in safety last year and notched up 3.7 million hours of flight, both cargo and passenger, a 15.4 percent year-on-year increase. More people, more flights, no crashes. Who would have bet on that? In fact, according to Xinhua, there hasn’t…
Flying the “Foggy” Skies
On Saturday morning, Shanghai Airline Flight 9237, Shanghai Hongqiao to Linyi, Shandong, began boarding at 8:50 AM. Just before joining forty-some other passengers on the Bombarbdier CRJ, I took this photograph of the terminal through the morning haze. On the basis of too much experience, I try not to fly north of the Yangtze River…
Just in time for flu season … No more quarantine forms!
According to Xinhua: Beginning next month, international passengers will no longer need to fill out a quarantine form upon entering China. If you’ve been an international arrival at any of China’s airports over the last four years, you know the routine: it’s the little white photocopied sheet (in Shanghai, at least) requiring that you disclose…