Star Alliance member EVA Air has a much underrated frequent flyer program and one of the best business class products in the world.
However the world focused on the treatment of the airline’s flight attendants after a truly shocking passenger incident this year that was so bad it spurred flight attendant activism including demands that the airline hire male cabin crew. In June and July the airline’s flight attendants went on strike for 17 days, and over 2000 flights were cancelled.
The unprecedented strike engendered so much animosity that there are reports of returning flight attendants threatening not to properly close cabin doors, to spike passenger and pilot meals, and to go after flight attendants who crossed the picket line.
The head of the flight attendant union reportedly “threatened to “add something” to flight crew meals for anyone who crossed the picket line and helped break the strike” and has since been recommended for termination.
These threats have been taken seriously, though, by the FAA. The US regulator has asked for an explanation of the food poisoning threat, and Taiwan’s civil aviation regulator has instructed the airline to provide an official response “so that its flights to the US can operate normally.”
Furthermore, Taiwan’s aviation safety regulator has indicated that if the since-dismissed flight attendant isn’t prosecuted for her remarks, that they will investigate whether she :infringed civil aviation regulations.”
For her part she says she was joking. It seems Airplane! doesn’t translate well to Taiwan, because aficionados here in the States know not to eat the fish and not to wave at your friend Jack as you pass through security screening.
“The head of the flight attendant union reportedly “threatened to “add something” to flight crew meals”
Don’t you just love the intellectual maturity of union leadership? It’s almost like it’s laid down in their DNA.
@ Gary — Wow, this is pretty serious.
The FA in question needs to be grounded certainly not allowed to continue as a FA
You think the flight attendant treatment is bad…from what I hear First Officers have it worse From what I hear from some US pilots that flew for EVA, the culture is a dangerous one. VERY dangerous. I know pilots that quit , now flying E145s for $50K per year I steal of over 100K flying EVA 777s. Crew Resource Management is a huge deal. It’s what helped save US Airways 1549 and what has caused thousands of deaths in passed aviation crashed. While US airlines provoke and consistently train and practice CRM, EVA has gone no where. First Officers aren’t allowed to speak much and are barely treated as crew. Asians Airlines recent crash was 99% CRM(3 crew members and the FO knows the auto throttles are disabled but probably scared out of his mind to speak up ). The Taipei Q400 crash was another recent deadly pilot error crash that probably would have been a non event had they practiced good CRM. EVA and some Chinese carriers are beyond dangerous and hundreds of times more likely than US carriers to have an incident.
Ryan, way to lump a bunch of unrelated Asian airlines into your own personal basket of deplorable airlines to try to prove a point about EVA. You picked a Korean airline (Asiana), dead Taiwanese airline, and nebulous allusion to Chinese based airlines to claim that EVA is “beyond dangerous and hundreds of times more likely than US carriers to have an incident.”
If you’d been trying to bash China Airlines, you might have a point.
Unfortunately, you chose EVA, an airline that has literally never had an aircraft loss or passenger fatality in its entire lifetime (of 28 years of operation). EVA’s been able to charge a premium over CI for the better part of 20 years because of their reputation for safety in Taiwan.
Ryan, yeah sure. EVA has a pretty good safety record and your examples were of different airlines, so what is the point? Got an axe to grind? Maybe you have the problem buddy…
This story is a bit dated and she has left the airline about two weeks ago.
@Richard Shih – I noted the termination