Globe sees Air Canada kowtow to Beijing over Taiwan

[Lakelad]

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Globe sees Air Canada kowtow to Beijing over Taiwan

Wed May 16, 2018 - Stockwatch News

The The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that Air Canada has joined the growing list of air carriers bowing to Beijing's pressure campaign to designate the self-ruled island of Taiwan as part of China. The Globe's Steven Chase and Robert Fife write that customers now wishing to purchase a flight to or from airports in Taiwan's capital, Taipei, are now informed these facilities are located in China. The abbreviation CN, standing for China, has been added to their location description. The democratically elected government of Taiwan is calling on the Canadian carrier to reverse course, issuing a statement requesting "that this be corrected immediately." China, in recent months, had threatened dozens of international carriers with retribution if they did not begin toeing Beijing's line on Taiwan. Until recently, international airlines tended to list Taiwan only as Taiwan with no reference to China. Beijing has grown increasingly aggressive under President Xi Jinping about using its economic power to coerce foreign companies to change the way they refer to China. This includes Taiwan, which the Communist Party-run People's Republic of China considers a wayward province.

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[j.k.]

What are you going to do... Stuck between a rock and a much larger rock...

You can't threaten your presence in HKG/PEK/PVG all well established routes and each served out of multiple Canadian markets...

China is obviously not very understanding, you just have to hope Taiwan can be and get over it. As much as I sympathize with them... it's business.

[DEFCON]

Are you kidding? What's your soul worth anyway?

There's much more at stake here than a the temporary interruption to a handful of Canadian air carrier routes.

 

[j.k.]

I'm not kidding. 

Do you think it would be temporary? I doubt it. China has a long memory and are always playing the long game... 

AC has to weigh it out, as a business decision for their shareholders, and the Chinese routes outweigh the Taipei route...

This is for diplomats and governments to sort out... not for a private corporation to take a major hit.

slots: gone,

market share: gone,

overflight: gone,

Air China JV: gone,

jobs: lost.

Maybe AC should take countries out of everything on their website... only downside would be a few more people ending up in Sydney, Nova Scotia every year...

That said, I don't know why we in the West have supported the growth in China the past 20 years... for what? cheap stuff?

Short sighted westerners... now we're getting bought out...

[UpperDeck]

Therein lies the problem in microcosm. China is being a bully but who has the moral committment to stand up and say "No" when the consequence is immediate and financial. Many disagree with the US position on Iran but who is prepared to bear the financial burden of opposition?

Niki Haley walks out of the Palestinian presentation on the recent Gaza conflict. This is evidence of a " civil society"? Hell in a hand basket I say.

[Maverick]

46 minutes ago, j.k. said:

I'm not kidding. 

Do you think it would be temporary? I doubt it. China has a long memory and are always playing the long game... 

AC has to weigh it out, as a business decision for their shareholders, and the Chinese routes outweigh the Taipei route...

This is for diplomats and governments to sort out... not for a private corporation to take a major hit.

slots: gone,

market share: gone,

overflight: gone,

Air China JV: gone,

jobs: lost.

Maybe AC should take countries out of everything on their website... only downside would be a few more people ending up in Sydney, Nova Scotia every year...

That said, I don't know why we in the West have supported the growth in China the past 20 years... for what? cheap stuff?

Short sighted westerners... now we're getting bought out...

Ban all the mainland Chinese carriers to Canada. China is all about business, let them decide what that's worth. 

[Zan Vetter]

Ooh trade war, great idea.

[dagger]

11 hours ago, Maverick said:

Ban all the mainland Chinese carriers to Canada. China is all about business, let them decide what that's worth. 

How does that scare China? They will redeploy tourists elsewhere. A lot of Canadians on the ground have come to depend on Chinese tourism. They would be screwed because it's not like there would be a great deal of replacement tourists coming to Canada.

[DEFCON]

Greed always comes with its rewards.

Just ask the Jews how they made out when the world was more interested in appeasing the oppressor than defending morality.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[UpperDeck]

Boy!! Talk about a moral switch. Somebody hit that switch and eliminated the memory of that oppression because the lesson hasn't been carried forward and spread around the West Bank!! We collectively are reminded to never forget the holocaust and yet the oppressed have become the oppressors seemingly blind to the unjustness of their acts. No--- the deaths are not counted in hundreds of thousands but to a mother, the death of one child generates sufficient grief.

[Fido]

46 minutes ago, UpperDeck said:

yet the oppressed have become the oppressors

 

Just spend a little time in Israel.

It might be a shock to your system and beliefs.

 

[dagger]

Before a polarized debate about the Mideast situation breaks out, this article provides some very good context. To sum it up - the situation is very complex.

http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/262329/gaza-media-explainer

 

13 INCONVENIENT TRUTHS ABOUT WHAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN GAZA

The reality is much messier than the partisan echo chambers would have you believe

By Yair Rosenberg

May 16, 2018 • 9:30 PM

The cacophony that accompanies every upsurge in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can make it seem impossible for outsiders to sort out the facts. Recent events in Gaza are no exception. The shrillest voices on each side are already offering their own mutually exclusive narratives that acknowledge some realities while scrupulously avoiding others.

But while certain facts about Gaza may be inconvenient for the loudest partisans on either side, they should not be inconvenient to the rest of us.

To that end, here are 13 complicated, messy, true things about what has been happening in Gaza. They do not conform to one political narrative or another, and they do not attempt to conclusively apportion all blame. Try, as best you can, to hold them all in your mind at the same time.

1. The protests on Monday were not about President Donald Trump moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, and have in fact been occurring weekly on the Gaza border since March. They are part of what the demonstrators have dubbed “The Great March of Return”—return, that is, to what is now Israel. (The Monday demonstration was scheduled months ago to coincide with Nakba Day, an annual occasion of protest; it was later moved up 24 hours to grab some of the media attention devoted to the embassy.) The fact that these long-standing Palestinian protests were mischaracterized by many in the media as simply a response to Trump obscured two disquieting realities: First, that the world has largely dismissed the genuine plight of Palestinians in Gaza, only bothering to pay attention to it when it could be tenuously connected to Trump. Second, that many Palestinians do not simply desire their own state and an end to the occupation and settlements that began in 1967, but an end to the Jewish state that began in 1948.

2. The Israeli blockade of Gaza goes well beyond what is necessary for Israel’s security, and in many cases can be capricious and self-defeating. Import and export restrictions on food and produce have seesawed over the years, with what is permitted one year forbidden the next, making it difficult for Gazan farmers to plan for the future. Restrictions on movement between Gaza, the West Bank, and beyond can be similarly overbroad, preventing not simply potential terrorist operatives from traveling, but families and students. In one of the more infamous instances, the U.S. State Department was forced to withdraw all Fulbright awards to students in Gaza after Israel did not grant them permission to leave. Today, official policy bars Gazans from traveling abroad unless they commit to not returning for a full year. It is past time that these issues be addressed, as outlined in part in a new letter from several prominent senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

3. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is an authoritarian, theocratic regime that has called for Jewish genocide in its charter, murdered scores of Israeli civilians, repressed Palestinian women, and harshly persecuted religious and sexual minorities. It is a designated terrorist group by the United States, Canada, and the European Union.

4. The overbearing Israeli blockade has helped impoverish Gaza. So has Hamas’s utter failure to govern and provide for the basic needs of the enclave’s people. Whether it has been spending its manpower and millions of dollars on subterranean attack tunnels into Israel—including under United Nations schools for Gaza’s children—or launching repeated messianic military operations against Israel, the terrorist group has consistently prioritized the deaths of Israelis over the lives of its Palestinian brethren.

5. Many of the thousands of protesters on the Gaza border, both on Monday and in weeks previous, were peaceful and unarmed, as anyone looking at the photos and videos of the gatherings can see.

6. Hamas manipulated many of these demonstrators into unwittingly rushing the Israeli border fence under false pretenses in order to produce injuries and fatalities. As the New York Times reported, “After midday prayers, clerics and leaders of militant factions in Gaza, led by Hamas, urged thousands of worshipers to join the protests. The fence had already been breached, they said falsely, claiming Palestinians were flooding into Israel.” Similarly, the Washington Post recountedhow “organizers urged protesters over loudspeakers to burst through the fence, telling them Israeli soldiers were fleeing their positions, even as they were reinforcing them.” Hamas has also publicly acknowledged deliberately using peaceful civilians at the protests as cover and cannon fodder for their military operations. “When we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the public,” Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar told an interviewer. “This is peaceful resistance bolstered by a military force and by security agencies.”

7. A significant number of the protesters were armed, which is how they did things like this:

Widely circulated Arabic instructions on Facebook directed protesters to “bring a knife, dagger, or gun if available” and to breach the Israeli border and kidnap civilians. (The posts have now been removed by Facebook for inciting violence but a cached copy can be viewed here.) Hamas further incentivized violence by providing payments to those injured and the families of those killed. Both Hamas and the Islamic Jihad terror group have since claimed many of those killed as their own operatives and posted photos of them in uniform. On Wednesday, Hamas Political Bureau member Salah Al-Bardawil announced that 50 of the 62 fatalities were Hamas members.

Contrary to certain Israeli talking points, however, these facts do not automatically justify any particular Israeli response or every Palestinian casualty or injury. They simply establish the reality of the threat.

8. It is facile to argue that Gazans should be protesting Hamas and its misrule instead of Israel. One, it is not a binary choice, as both actors have contributed to Gaza’s misery. Two, as the BBC’s Julia MacFarlane recalled from her time covering Gaza, any public dissent against Hamas is perilous: “A boy I met in Gaza during the 2014 war was dragged from his bed at midnight, had his kneecaps shot off in a square and was told next time it would be axes—for an anti-Hamas Facebook post.” The group has publicly executed those it deems “collaborators” and broken up rare protests with gunfire. Likewise, Gazans cannot “vote Hamas out” because Hamas has not permitted elections since it won them and took power in 2006. The group fares poorly in the polls today, but Gazans have no recourse for expressing their dissatisfaction. Protesting Israel, however, is an outlet for frustration encouraged by Hamas.

9. In that regard, Hamas has worked to increase chaos and casualties stemming from the protests by allowing rioters to repeatedly set fire to the Kerem Shalom crossing, Gaza’s main avenue for international and humanitarian aid, and by turning back trucks of needed food and supplies from Israel.

10. A lot of what you’re seeing on social media about what is transpiring in Gaza isn’t actually true. For instance, a video of a Palestinian “martyr” allegedly moving under his shroud that is circulating in pro-Israel circles is actually a 4-year old clip from Egypt. Likewise, despite the claims of viral tweets and the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry that were initially parroted by some in the media, Israel did not actually kill an 8-month old baby with tear gas. The Gazan doctor who treated her told the Associated Press that she died from a preexisting heart condition, a fact belatedly picked up by the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. In the era of fake news, readers should be especially vigilant about resharing unconfirmed content simply because it confirms their biases.

11. There are constructive solutions to Gaza’s problems that would alleviate the plight of its Palestinian population while assuaging the security concerns of Israelis. However, these useful proposals do not go viral like angry tweets ranting about how Palestinians are all de facto terrorists or Israelis are the new Nazis, which is one reason why you probably have never heard of them.

12. A truly independent, respected inquiry into Israel’s tactics and rules of engagement in Gaza is necessary to ensure any abuses are punished and create internationally recognized guidelines for how Israel and other state actors should deal with these situations on their borders. The United Nations, which annually condemns Israel in its General Assembly and Human Rights Council more than all other countries combined, and whose notorious bias against Israel was famously condemned by Obama ambassador to the U.N., Samantha Power, clearly lacks the credibility to administer such an inquiry. Between America, Canada, and Europe, however, it should be possible to create one.

13. But because the entire debate around Israel’s conduct has been framed by absolutists who insist either that Israel is utterly blameless or that Israel is wantonly massacring random Palestinians for sport, a reasonable inquiry into what it did correctly and what it did not is unlikely to happen.

***

 

[UpperDeck]

3 hours ago, Fido said:

 

Just spend a little time in Israel.

It might be a shock to your system and beliefs.

 

Fido.....

I spent a while in the Middle East. My parents lived there.

My most recent discussions on the subject were with the parents of two women who moved to a settlement with their husbands. They expressed their belief that Palestinian families were suffering unjustly.

I appreciate the article posted by Dagger. There are no easy answers--- only a lot of pain. The same comments might be made with respect to the civil war in Syria.

[Fido]

3 hours ago, UpperDeck said:

There are no easy answers--- only a lot of pain.

 

My feeling after having been there for extended work visits is that no-one there is above reproach.

[UpperDeck]

Back to the " airline issue"...Chinese influence over AC operations. Rumour has it that China has mandated that unless airlines operating into China improve their on-time performance, their slots are imperilled. They were specific as to the worst performing companies giving the five worst three months to improve. Air Canada was third from the bottom. Think about that.....third worst!! It's all about aircraft utilization but of course every department is pointing a finger at each other. Bottom line....improve OTP or lose your slots. Major potential consequences.

Or maybe it's all about Taiwan.

[DEFCON]

Conditioning has to begin somewhere.

In this case China's bullying the weak kneed and morally gutless, namely Canada, into becoming their economic 'bitch'.

 

 

 

[Guest]

Looks to me that one result will be an improvement in AC's otp into China. Not exactly a bad outcome.   Here is the OAG summary of OTP for 2017 for Mega Airlines  AC is 17th out of the 20 carriers with very poor otp.  The stats are only for arrivals.

The last % number is the actual OTP.

Table 1: Top 20 mega airlines by OTP*

Rank Coverage Airline Name Code OTP 2017

1 99.1% Japan Airlines JL 85.27%

2 97.4% All Nippon Airways NH 83.81%

3 99.7% Delta Air Lines DL 82.76%

4 97.1% IndiGo 6E 81.22%

5 99.7% Alaska Airlines AS 81.06%

6 99.5% SAS SK 80.90%

7 99.7% United Airlines UA 79.86%

8 90.4% LATAM Airlines Group LA 79.39%

9 99.2% American Airlines AA 78.97%

10= 99.5% Southwest WN 78.55%

10= 96.9% British Airways BA 78.55%

12 99.6% Lufthansa LH 76.90%

13 99.3% Air France AF 76.44%

14 98.6% Turkish Airlines TK 76.35%

15 99.4% easyJet U2 74.82%

16 99.2% JetBlue B6 71.74%

17 99.4% Air Canada AC 67.32%

18 96.1% China Southern Airlines CZ 64.19%

19 98.6% China Eastern Airlines MU 61.80%

20 89.2% Air China CA 60.14%

Amongst the world’s largest airlines, two Japanese carriers top this table. Japan Airlines achieves

first place with 85.27% of flights on time and All Nippon Airlines is not far behind in second place

with 83.81% on time.

The US majors all make it into the Top 10 with Delta Air Lines taking third place, United Airlines 7th

and American Airlines 9th place, with all three achieving OTP of 78% or over.

The Top 20 includes a broad geographic spread with six airlines from Asia Pacific, six European

airlines, one airline from Latin America and seven North American airlines.

If you want to see the actual chart: https://www.oag.com/hubfs/Free_Reports/Punctuality_League/2018/PunctualityReport2018.pdf?hsCtaTracking=355de328-d17a-4f61-9f5b-137270b39310|f2bdd8b5-dbe9-49fd-9563-aa256d348cfa

For LC WestJet is not exactly sterling at 15th out of 20 carriers. Again this only arrivals.

Table 3: Top 20 LCC airlines by OTP*

Rank Coverage Airline Name Code OTP 2017

1 82.2% Vueling Airlines VY 85.25%

2 86.5% Jetstar Asia 3K 85.08%

3 85.4% Skymark Airlines BC 85.00%

4 81.5% Transavia HV 84.25%

5 91.9% Azul AD 84.14%

6 96.7% Volaris Y4 82.13%

7 98.0% Sky Airline H2 81.93%

8 99.2% GOL Linhas Aereas G3 81.73%

9 97.1% IndiGo 6E 81.22%

10 83.4% Eurowings EW 79.39%

11 99.6% Frontier Airlines F9 78.91%

12 85.0% Norwegian Air Shuttle DY 78.62%

13 99.5% Southwest WN 78.55%

14 99.8% Spirit Airlines NK 76.97%

15 99.5% Westjet WS 76.18%

16 96.6% Jetstar Airways JQ 75.99%

17 92.0% Air Asia India I5 74.85%

18 99.4% easyJet U2 74.82%

19 91.7% Thai AirAsia FD 74.48%

20 90.2% SpiceJet SG 73.72%

Europe-based Vueling Airlines is ranked first amongst the Top 20 LCCs for on-time performance

having achieved OTP of 85.25% in 2017, and the airline is ranked 7th amongst all airlines. Vueling

Airlines has made significant improvements in OTP this year, improving performance by over 13

percentage points.

New to the OAG Punctuality League, Jetstar Asia has achieved second place in this category with

85.08% OTP.

Enhanced coverage and an expansion of the criteria means that four other LCCs join the Punctuality

League this year. These are Azul, Volaris, Sky Airline and Air Asia India.

Southwest, the largest LCC in the world, is ranked 13th with an OTP of 78.55%.

https://www.oag.com/hubfs/Free_Reports/Punctuality_League/2018/PunctualityReport2018.pdf?hsCtaTracking=355de328-d17a-4f61-9f5b-137270b39310|f2bdd8b5-dbe9-49fd-9563-aa256d348cfa

 

[moeman]

Quote

18 96.1% China Southern Airlines CZ 64.19%

19 98.6% China Eastern Airlines MU 61.80%

20 89.2% Air China CA 60.14%

I wonder if they're threatened with losing their slots too?

 

[DEFCON]

To be fair to the Chinese, everyone in the industry is well aware of the negative impact arrival / departure delays have on overall airport operations.

When an air carrier's performance consistently falls below a prescribed standard and there doesn't appear to much of an effort to rectify the situation, how could anyone fault the host nation for feeling somewhat abused and taking action against offending operators to resolve the issue?

If this is the case, I think China deserves a 'well done' for shaking up the status quo.

 

[Ex 9A Guy]

What is the first number? Completion rate?

The large airlines are not too bad but the LCCs are brutal.

1 82.2% Vueling Airlines VY 85.25%

2 86.5% Jetstar Asia 3K 85.08%

3 85.4% Skymark Airlines BC 85.00%

4 81.5% Transavia HV 84.25%

5 91.9% Azul AD 84.14%

The top 5 only just break a 90%  completion rate.  85% OTP on 82% of your flights is only 70% OTP system-wide.