Starlux Airlines’ Chairman can’t catch a break. Not only is he being investigated for letting an influencer into the cockpit of an inaugural flight, but now he’s being investigated for flying while fatigued…
In this post:
Starlux Chairman operated flight after not sleeping night before
Starlux Airlines Founder & Chairman Chang Kuo-wei is quite a guy. He’s a huge avgeek, so in addition to leading the company, he’s also a captain who is rated to fly all of the carrier’s jets. He was previously Chairman of EVA Air, where he was rated on the Boeing 777.
Recently Starlux had a huge meltdown at Tokyo Narita Airport (NRT), whereby both of the carrier’s Airbus A350s got stranded at the airport overnight. This was due to a combination of several factors, including bad weather, maintenance problems, crews reaching their maximum duty time, and more.
During this incident, the Chairman did what virtually no other airline executive would do — he flew to Narita Airport in order to be able to apologize to passengers in person. Perhaps even more admirable is how he got there — he took a redeye flight in economy on an ultra low cost carrier. Jetstar Japan is the only airline operating a redeye in the market, so he flew on a flight that departed at 2:40AM and arrived at 7:00AM.
After apologizing to passengers and the situation being resolved, he personally flew one of the Airbus A350s back to Taipei (TPE). That decision is now ruffling some feathers. Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is investigating whether he violated regulations by flying an aircraft fatigued, exceeding flight duty periods for pilots. This is because he admitted that he didn’t sleep on the short redeye to Japan.
Is Starlux’s Chairman a hero, or irresponsible?
As a huge aviation geek, Chang is probably the most inspirational airline leader on earth. He’s so incredibly passionate about his airline and aviation that he can personally fly all of the carrier’s planes, and that he also personally shows up when the airline has an operational meltdown, even if it means taking a short redeye on an ultra low cost carrier. You won’t find many airline leaders who are willing to do any of that.
At the same time, does Chang almost have some sort of a hero complex, or why is he now repeatedly getting in trouble with the CAA? Above all else, a company’s leader should be setting an example for how staff should act. If Chang acts a certain way as a pilot, he should expect other pilots to act that way as well.
Would Chang be okay with other pilots flying a commercial aircraft if they hadn’t slept the night before? I think we can all agree that’s not a best practice. So did Chang not view it as a big deal, or did he just personally think he could do so safely, while he wouldn’t trust other pilots to do that?
And it’s one thing if this were an isolated incident, but he’s also in trouble for letting an influencer in the cockpit while the plane was on the ground, in violation of Taiwan’s aviation regulations. Did he not know the regulations, or did he think they don’t apply to him?
Bottom line
Starlux Airlines is having a really rough week, with very bad publicity in Taiwan over the carrier’s meltdown at Narita Airport. In particular, Starlux’s Chairman is in trouble with regulators, first for allowing an influencer in the cockpit while on the ground (in violation of Taiwan’s aviation regulations), and now for piloting a plane after he didn’t sleep the night before. I’m curious to see what comes all of this…
What do you make of Starlux’s Chairman being investigated for possibly violating pilot fatigue regulations?
I admire KW Chang's charismatic leadership and "televised" interviews. He shared an anecdote where he personally unclogged an airline toilet in flight (EVA). "It's my plane, therefore it is _my_ sh*t"
Didn’t rest the night before a one sector flight back to Taipei? Welcome to the life of a pilot! Quite normal for pilot to position to an outport and immediately operate the return flight.
The guy is an egomanic. The airline won't be around for long. I dunno why you got a hardon for them.
Exactly!
Can't he argue that the redeye can count as his service hours?
If a regular pilot has insomnia the night before, is that pilot banned from flying?
I'm sure it has a lot to do with Eva but Eva will soon have thier own nightmare PR problems. It turns out thier Eva Skymall bags are made by forced prison labour which means every flight into Canada can be delayed for search and seizure of goods made in violation of 9897.00 of Canada's custom laws. I understand him trying to make a good impression for Starlux but he needs to stop acting on impulse.
With such an experienced and dedicated leader as Chairman Chang, I would fly Starlux and invest in its shares.
Taking a 3-hour redeye to your duty station, then flying a 4h flight home is a total nothingburger. Smacks of an overactice bureaucracy.
Passengers on AZ609 would think otherwise.
Weird how Sam Chui isn’t reporting this one…
I think there might be a concerted effort behind the scenes by CI and EVA to attack Starlux’s image. Which makes sense if I were them, but honestly is a bit disappointing, because I love everything about Starlux and wish them the best of success. They bring something new, cool, and special to the industry. I find this CEO being such a passionate AvGeek to be quite amusing and something you do not see at...
I think there might be a concerted effort behind the scenes by CI and EVA to attack Starlux’s image. Which makes sense if I were them, but honestly is a bit disappointing, because I love everything about Starlux and wish them the best of success. They bring something new, cool, and special to the industry. I find this CEO being such a passionate AvGeek to be quite amusing and something you do not see at most airlines. As an AvGeek myself, I remember having those days where I would come up with my own fictional airline brands and then pretend like I was actually spotting their branding at the airport or flying one of their planes on my flight simulator. It is such a vibe.
Paging the brainwashed @Mo @David @ooyaboon to blindly defend your cult.
What a joke!!!!! WOW !!!! (again and again)
Starlux operating like an amatuer LCC.
It's not like this is the chairman's first exposure to an airline.
Starlux just fall from very interesting airline to try down to another wanna be player, right above those real fictitious startups.
Bring em on haters :)
Now on the other hand, am I sensing some incumbent dark...
Paging the brainwashed @Mo @David @ooyaboon to blindly defend your cult.
What a joke!!!!! WOW !!!! (again and again)
Starlux operating like an amatuer LCC.
It's not like this is the chairman's first exposure to an airline.
Starlux just fall from very interesting airline to try down to another wanna be player, right above those real fictitious startups.
Bring em on haters :)
Now on the other hand, am I sensing some incumbent dark political motive targeting the outcast?
As many great things that can be said for Taiwan, it’s known for having a horrendously dismissive safety culture. Just look at how many major incidents China Airlines had in the 90s and early 2000s. Train accidents and building collapses are also far more common than in most similarly developed countries. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Starlux’s chairman has a bit of a laid back attitude about fatigue…
Sounds like a smear campaign. Nothing needs to come out of this "investigation", EVA just needs to pressure the Taiwanese regulators to start an "investigation" and the damage would already be done, regardless of whether there's any wrongdoing in the end.
Extremely irresponsible and dangerous. no matter what he thinks of his capabilities a fuly calm and rested mind is needed to operate an airplane
I think this has more to do with China Airlines and EVA Air working behind the scenes with the CAA to “knock Starlux down a peg or two” than anything else. I’m sure they are bristling and the publicity Starlux has been receiving.
Yeah pretty sure you've nailed it.
Yep, I wouldn't say Taiwan companies have the leverage of say, a chaebol like Samsung has in South Korea, but they definitely have a lot more leverage than a major company in the West. This is clearly a PR counterattack on Starlux.
Yeah Starlux is so luxurious. I can't wait to fly their business class product from LAX next year.
Couldn't possibly be related to his feud with EVA, right?
It might be worth noting he probably had to fly the plane back otherwise they don’t have any aircraft for their TPE-LAX route which was delayed due to this. Apologizing to customers stranded in Japan was secondary ( not saying he should not do it.) Whole thing was poor planning and bad luck all combined together plus they are still a really small airlines at the moment. But either way he will attract a lot...
It might be worth noting he probably had to fly the plane back otherwise they don’t have any aircraft for their TPE-LAX route which was delayed due to this. Apologizing to customers stranded in Japan was secondary ( not saying he should not do it.) Whole thing was poor planning and bad luck all combined together plus they are still a really small airlines at the moment. But either way he will attract a lot of scrutiny from regulator on many front since he’s the chairman.
A small airline and it’s a publicity stunt and good marketing. Once they get larger, the CEO isn’t going to fly to every destination in the event of an irrop. There are also other CEOs I’m aware of who are big aviation geeks
Hmm... Although this is probably a slightly more significant breach than the Chuigate, it seems slightly odd that the CAA has gone as far as investigating (and asking him) if he slept on the redeye to Japan... Is every single relief pilot always investigated by the respective aviation authority to see if they slept on their way to the relief mission? Do you *maybe* think that a certain third party might be particularly interested in...
Hmm... Although this is probably a slightly more significant breach than the Chuigate, it seems slightly odd that the CAA has gone as far as investigating (and asking him) if he slept on the redeye to Japan... Is every single relief pilot always investigated by the respective aviation authority to see if they slept on their way to the relief mission? Do you *maybe* think that a certain third party might be particularly interested in pushing forwards all these CAA investigations with the intent of generating bad press for Starlux?
Won't point fingers as it's mostly speculation, but it certainly makes me question what is really going on behind the scenes.
@ Ben Holz -- Definitely a fair point. However, reportedly he volunteered that he hadn't slept the night before to the press, when explaining his trip to Narita.
mea culpa... should've read the full article haha
Part of this might be due to they don’t have any aircraft flying their TPE-LAX flight due to this. It’s already delayed at that point and he had to get the airplane black so this is not entirely a publicity stunt.
Either way it’s poor planning plus being a still very small airline together. He will get scrutinized by regulator no matter what he decide to do.
Never in my life had I thought I would hear the word "Chuigate", but here we go.