China Northwest/China Eastern
 

I am a cautious flyer and am considering a flight from Xi'an to Beijing in a few weeks. One of my options is China Northwest airlines. Does anyone have opinions on the safety record of this company?<BR><BR>I am also considering a China Eastern flight from Beijing to Shanghai. Additional safety information for this airline would be appreciated as well.<BR><BR>Thanks in advance for your help!

We took 7 internal China flights in May. Planes were new, good. You can see my report including planes at &quot;Road to Hong Kong.&quot;

China Eastern is IATA registered as it flies several international routes. I've flown with the company several times. <BR><BR>China Northwest is just a common or garden Chinese airline, and, according to a Chinese friend who happens to be with me at the moment, pretty indistinguishable from other major Chinese domestic airlines.<BR><BR>The fleet these days is almost all Airbuses and Boeings. The service is highly variable, but these are just short flights and if you expect little you will be pleasantly surprised from time to time when the cabin crew's performance beats your expectations.<BR><BR>On one Chinese domestic flight I took last year, the plane returned from the runway to the terminal because one passenger refused to put her hand baggage under her seat or in the overhead locker. Airport officials boarded the plane and arrested her.<BR><BR>On the other hand I took and Air China flight from Xiamen to Singapore earlier this year on which we both took off and landed with the TV sets lowered over the aisles, passengers were allowed to stroll about the plane as it climbed and long after the seat belt sign had been turned on for landing. But then Air China had a 100% safety record until quite recently.<BR><BR>In fact, the other passengers are usually the most difficult thing about domestic flying in China--it isn't that unusual to be sitting next to someone who has never seen a seat belt before, or someone who thinks he's too important to have to listen to the cabin crew.<BR><BR>But whichever airline you fly in China you are several thousand times more likely to die in a road accident on the way to the airport. <BR><BR>Peter N-H<BR>http://members.axion.net/~pnh/China.html

Worked for the Boeing Company and did business in China for many years. Also have flown on lots of domestic airlines in China. Peter N-H is right on with his observations of airlines in China and the behavior of Chinese passengers.

Peter rerminds me of the flight to Tibet on China Northwest. The old man sitting next to me had only an old undershirt, and I had to help him put on his seat belt because he could not figure out how to do it.<BR><BR>In yesterday's Wall St. Journal, there is an article about 9 Chinese airlines consolidating into 3 companies, which are state-owned.

The consolidations were announced in October, in anticipation of vigorous competition from overseas airlines/investors after China was aceded to WTO last year. China Eastern and China Northwest are now one company!