"Watch the planes land at Sungshan Airport, and I'll give you ten to one that those making the smoothest landings carry the China Airlines insignia!"—so goes a proud boast by a China Airlines executive.
He supported his words with these claims:
—CAL pilots are more experienced than those of any other airlines serving Taiwan;
—CAL has never had an accident, or been close to one, in the six years of its existence;
—CAL has the top maintenance crews in the Orient.
Many airlines may honestly believe they are "the best". But CAL can point to these indisputable facts as evidence of exceptional accomplishments:
—It entered commercial service with two PBY World War II surplus planes virtually salvaged from the scrap heap. Six years later, it has 24 propeller craft, a Boeing 727 jet, and the prospect of two more 727 jets in the near future.
—When CAL set up a maintenance department in 1962, it had 40 men and only its own few planes to service. Today CAL employs 1,040 maintenance men and has service contracts with the United States government and five other airlines in Vietnam, Laos, the Philippines, and the United States.
—China Airlines revenues have climbed 108 per cent in the last four years. Its profits for 1966 were US$2.9 million.
Six With An Idea
Communications between Taiwan and the offshore island of Matsu were disrupted seven years ago when the Foshing Airlines suddenly discontinued their charter flights to the barren fortress-island just six nautical miles from Fukien province on the mainland. No other airline was interested in making these unprofitable and risky flights for the Ministry of National Defense.
Benjamin Y.C. Chow, president of CAL. (File photo)
Six retired Chinese Air Force officers decided to form their own airline. They not only would be able to fill the Taiwan-Matsu flight gap, but could make jobs for themselves in their chosen field of aviation.
With no planes and no organization, their selling point was experience. The Ministry of National Defense decided to give them a try.
The initial six men had become 26 when the company dubbed itself China Airlines and went to work rehabilitating the two PBY amphibious patrol bombers that had served nobly in the Second World War but that were scheduled for scrapping.
That first year saw no new business coming CAL's way. The flights to Matsu were the extent of the new carrier's operations.
Beginning in 1961, however, CAL expanded at snowballing speed. David T.H. Hsu, director of technical services, said progress and expansion were initially the result of CAL's strong desire to grow. "Now expansion is beyond our control," he said. "We are at a point where we must progress, we must grow."
Flights to Hualien
CAL bought its third aircraft, a DC-3, in 1961 and began a second charter service, carrying students and other groups to intra island destinations as well as to other points in the Far East.
On October 31, 1962, China Airlines began daily scheduled flights from Taipei to fast-growing Hualien, the only international seaport on Taiwan's cast coast and close to scenic Taroko Gorge. Domestic scheduled flights were extended to Taitung, Kaohsiung, and the Pescadores, not long thereafter.
The maintenance department was set up in that same year to take care of CAL's growing family of planes and to service aircraft leased to Royal Lao Airlines and Air Vietnam.
In 1965, China Airlines was designated a flag carrier for the Republic of China, giving CAL executives the courage to begin negotiations for their first jet. They decided on the Boeing 727 and applied for an international route and a loan from the U.S. Import-Export Bank. Delivery was made March 24, 1967. Taipei-Osaka-Hongkong service was inaugurated April 1.
By September of this year, China Airlines will have a second jet and begin flights to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. In mid-1968, it hopes to have a third jet. Preparations then can begin for transpacific service to the United States by 1970.
China Airlines is the only commercial carrier in the civil aviation history of China to go it alone without foreign assistance other than a bank loan. Before 1949, both the China National Aviation Company (a cooperative venture with Pan American) and the China Aeronautic Transport Company (a Sino-German enterprise) were at least half-owned by foreigners. The Civil Air Transport was established and is operated mainly by Americans.
Despite the self-approbation about smooth landings, CAL pilots consider their most important asset is "quality" flying. Smooth landings, they say, are only the icing on the cake. The cake itself is precise instrument flying in bad weather, strict safety measures, and assurance that pilots know exactly what to do in emergencies.
Long Experience
China Airlines pilots are all former flight officers of the Chinese Air Force. Without exception, each of them has had at least 10,000 flying hours in tricky jet fighters or heavy cargo planes.
China Airlines is not alone in taking advantage of the fine training provided by the Air Force, whose retired officers have become executives in some of Taiwan's key industries. Ex-CAF officers hold most of the executive positions in Philco's Taiwan electronics subsidiary. The chief engineers at both the Taiwan Pineapple Co. and the China Wool and Textile Co. are ex-CAF.
Benjamin Y.C. Chow, the president of China Airlines, is one of the CAF success stories. The name "Ben" was pinned on him when, at the age of 6 and beginning the first grade in the United States, he showed special interest in a portrait of Benjamin Franklin. Chow was brought up in the United States. He took up aeronautical engineering and learned to fly while attending college in California.
During the Sino-Japanese conflict, he returned to China to join the Chinese Air Force as a volunteer. He was one of the few such volunteers to stay in China after the war. From the rank of lieutenant, he climbed the CAF ladder to become a lieutenant general and inspector general.
Keeping CAL Young
Nearing 50 at the time the Matsu flights were up for grabs, Ben Chow became one of the nucleus of six that combined retirement with a new career in aviation.
CAL has 95 pilots, all former flight officers of CAP. (File photo)
Because the average retirement age of Chinese Air Force officers is a young 45, most of the founders of China Airlines are in their 50s. In any event, no one is worried about CAL becoming an "old man's" airline. The company has already taken care of that danger by implementing "Operation New Blood" in efficient military fashion.
CAL director of public relations Yang Chi-shu points out that in another 15 years most of the original key personnel will have reached 65, the mandatory retirement age. "Operation New Blood" recruits personnel to take the places of those retiring.
Mechanics are recruited through publicly announced qualifying examinations. They are accepted as apprentices for a three-month trial basis. Those who show promise are given on-the-job training that may last for years.
Work Comes First
A trainee is judged by his professional skill, his output, and his attitude toward his work and his colleagues. An expression of what CAL expects of its employees was forth coming from David Hsu. "If I see anyone— foreman or mechanic—running in the maintenance hanger, I automatically give that man a chewing out," he said. "There is no place on the maintenance floor for rushed or hurried behavior. If everything is going as it should, there are no emergencies."
CAL has 50 stewardesses. They were recruited from local college coeds. (File photo)
David Hsu described a good airline as somewhat like the Chinese ideal of a daughter-in-law—she has to be attractive and a good worker. Despite a crew of comely hostesses, CAL is concentrating on "good workers" and not pulchritude.
All CAL profits are plowed into expansion. So the airline has little money for big advertising campaigns or excessive frills in its passenger services. Service is the key in selling CAL to the air traveler in the Asian area.
CAL's maintenance department is a big earner of profits. David Hsu explained it this way: "We have a topnotch crew selling their skilled labor to the tune of some 100,000 man hours a month. To compete with others, we have to offer fewer man hours and a lower man hour rate for any repair job we do." Thanks to training, dedicated workers, and favorable Taiwan weather, CAL is ahead of its maintenance competitors, especially for Southeast Asian service contracts.
China Airlines has only 25 planes: 1 Boeing 727 jet, 10 C-46s, 7 C-47s, 5 C-54s, 1 C-45 and 1 PBY. But with more jets coming in and with a new generation of proud personnel in training, China Airlines rightly calls itself the "Airline of China's and Asia's future".