2024-01-29 16:00:00
2024-01-30 00:00 United Daily News Editorial After the EVA Air strike crisis ended, bookings have begun to pick up.Picture/Courtesy of EVA Air
EVA Air’s pilots were planning a Spring Festival strike. After the Executive Yuan stepped in to coordinate the strike, the strike ended with a “salary increase” in exchange for a strike. However, passengers and tourism industry operators were already breaking out in a cold sweat. The main reason for this strike is that Evergreen has hired more high-paying foreign pilots than domestic pilots in the past two years, causing dissatisfaction among domestic pilots. Evergreen lost a lot of pilots during the epidemic. After the lockdown was lifted, it had to find foreign pilots to fill the manpower gap. In fact, not only the airlines, but also Taoyuan Airport, the Tourism Department, the tourism and B&B industries were not prepared for the lifting of the lockdown and were caught off guard. The deeper reason behind this is that the government’s unorganized policy on unblocking has become the biggest stumbling block for companies to adapt to the situation.
The aviation industry is at the forefront of the epidemic tsunami. China Airlines has a large fleet of cargo aircraft, which not only supported most of the revenue during the epidemic, but also helped mitigate the impact on manpower. However, Evergreen, which mainly transports passengers, was forced to downsize its crew. After the national border was lifted in October last year, due to insufficient training of local pilots, it became increasingly dependent on foreign aid. According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, in the past two years, the number of Evergreen’s foreign pilots has increased by 57, while the number of domestic pilots has increased by only 40. The former has increased six times as much as the latter. In addition, local pilots were dissatisfied with the higher treatment of foreign pilots, so they launched a strike. It was the Spring Festival holiday, and many passengers were afraid of being affected and unable to travel. Fortunately, it was resolved at the last minute.
Evergreen’s slow response also reflects common problems in Taiwan’s aviation and tourism industries. Three years following the epidemic, airports have become empty cities. Many countries have taken advantage of this period to carry out major construction projects to renovate terminals and build new runways, especially accelerating the pace of smart equipment and contactless services. Taking Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok Airport as an example, it has applied “contactless technology” more extensively to passenger facilities, launched new self-service boarding gates, introduced contactless button panels in elevators, etc., which not only reduces the chance of virus contact and transmission, but also Make the passenger boarding process more convenient.
On the other hand, the software and hardware of peach machines have not been updated during the epidemic. Even many automatic identification and clearance systems are old and faulty, causing passengers to suffer when entering and exiting. Airport services have also been criticized. Many airport restaurants and duty-free shops have shortened their business hours during the epidemic and have not fully recovered so far. After low-cost airlines resume flights, many passengers who take red-eye flights often can only complain.
Not only the airport, but also the airport’s external passenger transportation has not fully restored pre-epidemic service levels so far. Even when people drive themselves to take flights, many nearby parking lots that were closed at the time have been used for other purposes, and some are still closed, making transportation from the airport to the outside even more inconvenient. These were all preconceived and inventoried two or three years ago, but apparently neither the Ministry of Transportation nor the Airport Company took them to heart. It has been more than a year since the lockdown was lifted, and there are still many gaps. It is no wonder that the international ranking of peach machines has dropped from 13th to 82nd in four years, because the government does not care at all.
After the blockade was lifted, cross-strait tourism exchanges were still suspended, and coupled with the loss of Japanese tourists, the Tsai administration focused on the new southbound route, but faced the problem of a shortage of Thai and Vietnamese tour guides. The Tsai administration has been promoting the New Southbound Policy for almost eight years, but the Tourism Administration has not increased the number of places for rare language qualifications in cultivating tourism talents, nor has it provided guidance in advance for the large number of new resident talents in Taiwan to enter the tour guide market. Tested on proficiency in Chinese and was turned away. The tourism industry has been reflecting on these issues for a long time, but the Tourism Administration did not start planning until one year following the border was opened. This negative mentality of “taking it one step at a time” and talking regarding building a major tourist country are just self-pleasure. Many tourism industry operators are the same. After the lockdown is lifted, they face a massive shortage of manpower. They can only recruit and open businesses at the same time, and they are not prepared at all.
Ultimately, the Tsai administration’s hesitation in advancing its epidemic prevention policy is the main reason for the chaos in unblocking. The Tsai administration was so quick when it closed the country, but the unblocking was delayed from the summer vacation of 2022 to October. On the other hand, in Singapore, with the support of 90% vaccination rate and 1.2 million cumulative confirmed cases, it announced a complete lifting of the lockdown in April 2022; Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong even informed the people in October of the previous year that the government Unblocking standards. This rhythmic and strategic approach allows all walks of life to respond in advance and quickly return to normal.
In the three years since the epidemic, what progress has Taiwan made? All I can say is, what a pity!
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