The "happy landing" marked the resumption of Pan Am's flights between Kennedy Airport in New York and Chiang Kai-shek Airport in the Republic of China. Celebrations were staged in Tokyo, Taipei, and also, reportedly, in San Francisco.
In Tokyo, Ma Shu-li, representative of the Association for East Asian Relations, noted that resumption of the New York-Taipei flights via Tokyo marked Pan Am's further recognition of the Republic of China's economic prosperity.
In Taipei, John Foley, vice president of the Pan Am Pacific division, said that the resumption of the firm's flights to Taipei is the most important part of Pan Am's worldwide flight resumption plan, as Taiwan with its prosperous economy and geographic importance in the Pacific area is a fortress which cannot be neglected by any international airline.
Pan Am suspended its Taipei flights in September 1978 in order to establish services to Peking. Contrary to expectations, the switch in services brought heavy losses, rather than profit, to the American airline.
According to a wire service dispatch, when a reporter asked Chien Chi-chen, "vice foreign minister" of the Peking regime, to comment on Pan Am's resumption of air services to Taipei, he brushed aside the question by saying, "It has not arrived."
Immediately after it had arrived, with an especially happy landing, Dr. James C.Y. Soong, government spokesman of the Republic of China, was asked to comment on Chien Chi-chen's remarks. Dr. Soong said: "Well, the plane has arrived, and it had a happy landing." He continued:
"We believe international commercial relations and communications should be strengthened. We welcome any free world government and people who wish to deal with us on a reciprocal basis.
"In the past, some people believed that the Chinese mainland market and communications with the Chinese Communist regime were commercial factors that could not be ignored. Pan Am resumed its Taipei flights following the start-up of flights by KLM of the Netherlands. These activities attest to the existence of the Republic of China as an irrefutable fact in international relations and economic activities. KLM's and Pan Am's disregard of Communist Chinese warnings and threatened retaliation, bespeaks the fact that the people in the world have awakened from dreams of the so-called Communist Chinese market, and that they have come to understand that hopes of gaining trade profits from the impoverished Chinese mainland are just a myth."
The U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration approved the resumption of Pan Am flight service to Taipei despite furious protests from Communist China.
Meanwhile, Northwest Orient, another major American airline, reported, in recognition of Taiwan's growing commercial and governmental activities, that it was stepping up services to Taipei. Northwest inaugurated twice-a-week non-stop flights between Taipei and Seoul and Chicago, leaving Taipei on Friday and Sundays.
In the European sector, it was announced that the five-year aviation agreement between the Republic of China and Luxemburg would be renewed for an additional two years.
Under the agreement, Cargolux of Luxemburg and China Airlines, the Republic of China's flag carrier, operate three flights a week in a joint service which has proved highly profitable to both sides.
The decision to maintain this service was taken even as CAL inaugurated a direct route between Taipei and Amsterdam in conjunction with initiation of a like service by KLM, the Dutch flag-carrier.
For the airlines of the world, toe bottom line is profit, and this is available only to those who act on the realities of the international situation. Pan Am's latest "happy landing" testifies to that fact.
Nevertheless, Peking suspended Pan Am's emergency landing rights in southern China in total disregard of the realities of the international situation and, more, the passengers' safety.