Air rage: Chinese screaming mad over delays

[n2doc]

Dec 11 (Reuters) - Airline crews and ground staff are assaulted, passengers storm a runway, and a person yanks open an emergency exit door on a plane.

In China, angry passengers are resorting to extreme measures to protest delays as the country's restricted air corridors are becoming clogged with millions of new fliers each year -- a fact attributed to the fast rise of the middle class and cheap flights.

There have been dozens of incidents involving irate travellers on both domestic and international flights this year, as airlines struggle to stick to their schedules.

"When flights get delayed, passengers make a lot of trouble. Sometimes they even beat our staff," Wang Zhenghua, founder and chairman of Shanghai-based budget carrier Spring Airlines, told Reuters in an interview earlier this year.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/10/china-airtravel-idUSL4N09D1LI20121210

[Major Nikon]

1. The airport in Beijing is huge

Planes are parked all over the airport. I've never seen anything like it. They are actually building another airport in Beijing that is even bigger because they have already outgrown the one they have.

[mainer]

2. The airports are astonishing -- I was just in Kunming

which is considered just a "minor" city in China. The airport was brighter, cleaner, and more modern than any American airport.

[Tempest]

3. Unlike the U.S., China has been building its infrastructure

Another reason they are going to beat us economically.

Better facilities for handling the transport of goods.

[Major Nikon]

4. Apparently not so well

Otherwise they wouldn't be having a problem with air traffic delays

[Tempest]

5. Don't confuse their consumer flights with their corporate flights

Corporate flights there receive top priority.

[Major Nikon]

6. I think the problem is a matter of infrastructure

There is only one airway you can reasonably take between Beijing and Shanghai.