Starlux Airlines had an operationally rough weekend in Japan, and the company’s Chairman did something I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a senior airline executive doing before. He flew to Japan to apologize to passengers, pledging to offer full refunds, and he then personally piloted one of the planes back home.
Continue reading: Wow: Starlux Chairman Flies To Japan To Apologize To Stranded Passengers
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Impressive for sure, glad I was exactly 2 weeks early on JX801. Now if only the Chairman can credit my points to Cosmile which has become a nightmare. Boarding pass and passport apparently not good enough. They claim my Cosmile account name and name on ticket don't match (one has middle initial the other full middle name). Great aircraft and cabin, not so much everything else including ground crew telling me not to buy anything in airport before flight as it would make my carryon over weight limit.
Narita is not a 24hr airport due to take-off/landing curfews for those nearby residents that the authorities failed to persuade 60 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanrizuka_Struggle
It's also said that Chairman Chang K.W. flew on a red-eye LCC flight to get to Narita and pilot the flight back to Taiwan.
The orange jumpsuit in the photo is what Alaska Airlines should have all FA wear. The FAs that look traditionally female (may not be female because they may self identify as male or no gender or Klingon) are typically not young and thin so attractive dresses are not a plus. ''
Having a bearded person wear a necktie but a skirt, high heals, and lipstick is odd.
Eventually, Starlux should acquire China Airlines if the EVA family members cannot get along. The Republic of China is too small a market for 3 large airlines, even if airlines from other countries are discouraged by the mainland to fly to TPE.
Well written!
Yes, I too question that the Custom left without getting the passengers out of airport to go to hotel we l to rest. It is the Japanese culture, will never give you a clear yes or no answer.
I have experienced similar delays with United, EVA, China Airlines, but never got refund or apology.
StarLux and it’s chairman took high standard to deal with the situation! Well done.
You really exaggerate their new uniform policy. Oh the possibilities. You have the right to be offended anyway.
Well, it is kind of ridiculous to see how many airport shopping bags the Hong Kong and Taiwan passengers bring onto the planes in Japan and take up all the overhead space! All those Tokyo Bananas take space and weight.
I am not sure I buy the "no agents at immigration" story. The last arrival with passengers is 9pm, meaning agents would be around well past that time stamp.
Also, cargo airlines come in later than that, and would need to have some immigration officers present to have the crews processed in to Japan.
But it may just have been easier and cheaper to hand out sleeping bags.
As a Taiwanese, I must say the role of Chang in this article has been exaggerated. Chang complained and criticized "Japanese is bureaucracy" in Nartia, which make JX can't take off during curfew. I think itt's a very inappropriate remark.
BTW according local news, JX transported their pilot and crew on CI222 TSA-HND, and they traveled to NRT by taxi , it is the reason why JX remain their passengers on seats more than 7 hours. Chang took GK12, a low-cost carrier, to NRT.
Not sure if I want to believe it that there was no other option to put these passengers on another airlines? Rather inconvenient them all in such manner…. Full refund is not sufficient to be honest
What a joke!!!!! WOW !!!!
A Chairman coming out to apologize in rare. NOT, especially in Japan.
Starlux operating like an amatuer LCC.
Why don't you rebook the passengers on NH CI CX JL BR and I'm not counting real LCC.
TPE-NRT is one of the busiest routes and you had to torture passengers for the whole night.
Starlux just fall from very interesting airline to try down to another wanna be player, right above those real fictitious startups.
Ur the joke! Even in their "fall from very interesting airline to try down to another wanna be player" please do not even think of patronizing them. They gladly do want, much less need negative nillies like you.
on the inaugural flight from Taipei to LA, he also flew the plane. Seems like an absolutely incredible guy who truly believes in what he is doing.
An (unintentionally) hilarious comment, in light of the ANA fiasco right now.
There's not a lot of chairman and CEOs who are as capable as Starlux's, an even less who would fly out to apologize to passengers and fly them back himself.
If immigration agents had left for the night, there wouldn’t have been any later flights, either.
In many large airports, immigration is done by terminal. It’s not enough for immigration agents being on duty somewhere in the airport, they have to be on duty in YOUR terminal to be of any use.
It looks like Narita uses a separate terminal for cargo flights, e.g.
I was in Taipéi last week. Interesting to see Starlux (the luxury brand) doing a ton of advertising and cooperation with 7/11! 2 hot dogs for $3 and some starlux miles! 🙂
I thought about flying them for cash but such a premium over EVA who have a phenomenal biz product on their 787-10 (as well as loads of award space).
Some extra articles about this situation:
Taiwan transport ministry, flight attendants union respond to Starlux fiasco: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4884749
Taiwan airline under fire after delays cause passengers to sleep in terminal: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4884600
Dumbass, its golden week in Japan - every flight is sold out. Read up before you post asinine comments
Narita closes between 11 pm - 6 am for flight departures / arrivals daily. Plus its golden week so a lot of staff are on leave. It's normal to never have immigration staff around at those hours.
Better than US carriers, upper management just sits back and collects money while making lives for employees much worse.
It's normal to see as Narita has some weird curfews while Starlux's interline system is under development and at this time...... poor.
FYI, JX now has
E-Ticket Interline Agreements
AS BR B7 JL NU NX
VN
Paper Ticket and Baggage Interline Agreements
MAY ISSUE TICKETS INCLUDING
AS BR B7 HR JL NU NX VN
MAY CHECK BAGGAGE TO
AS BR B7 HR JL NU NX VN
Considering JL's only Taiwan route is HND - TSA, passengers cannot get from NRT to HND as the immigration is off and Japanese trains are not 24hr, the only possible change option is BR, which is still in dispute with Chang on ownership.
So except lengthy tarmac delay, I believe Starlux is trying its best considering its current development stage, but do have lots of spaces for improvement.
Your sucking up to Starlux is so funny. It's an airline with a handful of planes. Literally 2 out of 2 A350s they own were stranded in Japan.
Not a big deal for the CEO of a tiny airline to hop over to his neighbouring country.
Come on man. Try to be a bit objective at least.
What extremely hilarious is that Starlux canceled 5/8 JX-1 due to 2 A359 got stuck at NRT.
Passengers of JX-1 called Starlux requesting for accommodations, but the agent of Starlux said that they won't provide any compensation or extra accommodation due to weather condition.
Due to weather condition..........
Due to weather condition..........
Due to weather condition..........
Bad weather at NRT then Starlux canceled fight from LAX to TPE due to weather condition?
At the moment, LAX and TPE are both in good weather so where is the weather condition?
What a butterfly effects! Gust wind at NRT causes flight unable to take off at LAX neither land at TPE.
The worst risk management strategy is lying!!
The only reason this was possible was because they needed to deploy the aircraft to pick up the passengers anyway. Further it was possible because of the short distance between the two places. If this flight was in South America or Africa it could not have been done. A refund is one thing, but I would have wanted more compensation. A day of my time lost.
Video shows crosswinds force Taiwan Starlux plane to abort Narita landing: https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4885071
These are growing pains for Starlux; I think, as the fleet grows, they’ll be fine.
Instead of having the chairman going down, what’s the point? He still didn’t solve any of the issues faced by the delayed passengers. All talk but no action. Just saying stuff that the chairman wants to say without listening to the passengers queries. Giving the mindset that “wow even the CEO came down, let make this matter small”. Just giving politically right answers to the passengers annd not listening to the passengers instead of really solving the issue.
JX800 diverted to Nagoya and the company didn’t provide any services to those stuck onboard. 8 hours and only a sandwich? (Based on videos posted by onboard passengers) Where’s the crisis management by the company? I mean even if they don’t fly regularly to Nagoya I believe there can be alternative if the airline wanted to provide good services to its passenger. It was just pure bad crisis and public management by the company
And for passengers that were scheduled for the return flight to Taiwan, usually airline will have hotel partners, so why wasn’t any of these considered for the passengers.
Please read up on more mandarin articles before praising the company..
Chairman being type-rated on all their fleet seems to have been useful here, but does ring one alarm bell, regarding CRM, i.e. inappropriate deference.
I do hope that when he meets the other pilot for a flight he says "I may be the Chairman, but in the cockpit ignore that, and think of me as any other pilot".
Given his attitude to customer service, there is a good chance that he does so.
There was a 9pm arrival in T1 and an 8:55pm arrival in T2. So, yeah immigration would have been around until well after those time stamps. I have had the experience on Air Canada where a delayed flight due to technical issues was called back to the gate as it would only have taken off after the curfew. No problem at all getting back landside for a hotel.
And yes, it was the prime arrival day for people returning from Golden Week, so the would not have been fewer agents than normal, but more agents than normal as it will have been one of the busiest days of the year.
The curfew is midnight to 6am. It has gradually been expanded. Though I think last passenger departing flight is Qatar Airways around 10:30pm.
They don't need to wait until the curfew comes. The crew was known to be timeout at around 7pm JPT. It's just Starlux who stranded the passengers inside the aircraft until 12am, hoping that the rescue crew could take-off before the curfew. Unfortunately their bet failed, and the passengers stayed inside the aircraft for 6 hours, watching other flights taking off.
What's another side of the story was that Starlux stranded their passengers on an aircraft from around 6pm to 1am, hoping a rescue crew to arrive before curfew. I don't think this is legal in US to left passengers inside the aircraft for 6 hours.
Their rescue crew was travelling on CI222, arriving HND at 10pm. I don't think it's a feasible plan letting the crew commuting from HND to NRT and sending the plane airbourne in just 2 hours. They COULD definitely avoid this bet, sending the passengers to hotel instead.
Plus, you did not mention that there are no compensation for passengers on JX1, where their flight was delayed by 24 hours due to 2 A350 stucked in NRT. These are some stories hidden by the PR show by the CEO.
LOL all the hate from people I even doubt have ever flown the airline.
OMAAT fans are really brainwashed by their influencer overlord.
@Mo
If you're smart enough to understand what I posted earlier. I'm already patronizing them by not patronizing a wanna be player. And please enjoy getting hanged out to dry by your beloved wanna be or LCC airlines. Spirit loves people like you.
@David
ANA if you mean by the mistake fare. It's a mistake fare and everyone knew it. Fair game for either outcome.
You are correct about the chairman's flying capability. Yet probably have no impact to the success of the airline. I don't see Ed Bastian piloting his fleet, yet per @Tim Dunn the most profitable airline. Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos flying rockets? No. The late Steve Jobs is on the sweatshop line gluing battery? No.
In that sense, not being capable isn't a bad thing.
@ooyaboon
Where is the hate from, being completely brainwashed without even flying?
P.S.
Dumbass, its the end of golden week in Japan - they are not squeezing out of Japan anymore. Read up before you post asinine comments.
After reading most of the comments here, you should realize by now even with different opinions there are people who are brainwashed, people who actually do fact checks, and some are just pure stupid.
I thank you for seeing beyond the propaganda and sharing a different perspective. I just hope more people are capable of seeing the bigger picture in other issues too.
Bring em on haters 🙂
Yeah I don't think people are reading the ENTIRE article before responding. It clearly states after the chairman and founder arrived in Japan, they apologized to the passengers, then left time for questions. Some people just want to be negative for no reason. The only problem I had is the canceled flight from LAX. That can cause big problems since the flight is over 12 hours. Not to mention travels plans after arrival date...ect. Maybe when the Starlux gets more aircraft, they can avoid these kinds of problems. I can't wait to try their business class products from LAX in the future.
I am not defending anyone but after all these years in reading all these stories about Narita and Japanese bureaucracy, the Japanese authority is extremely strict when it comes to curfew. Even if you are late by a minute, you are out of luck and will be prohibited from takeoff or landing.
About immigration, they are so short-staffed as of now, so I am actually not surprised that they deny clearing another widebody plane load of passengers. If the staffs worked overnight, they might not be able to start their shift on time the next day. All the other decisions by Starlux can be questioned but I am not surprised about their immigration staffs closed shop right at 11pm.
It is an unfortunate situation, but for the next year or so, you need to think twice before taking a late night departure and arrival in and out of Narita given the curfew situation and labor shortage.
Adrian