An attendant of a Chinese airline serves passengers in a flight. According to reports, cases of bad behavior against airline staff have increased recently. (Photo : www.news.nationalpost.com)
The ongoing problem of misbehaving Chinese air travelers has caught the attention of the public, as five cases of verbal abuse inflicted by passengers on airline staff have been recorded within the last month alone, the Global Times reported.
According to the report, the airline journeys taken by Chinese travelers increased from 319 million in 2012 to 354 million in 2013, a 10.8-percent increase, compared to only 231 million journeys made in 2009.
As the number of airline passengers increased, so did cases of misbehavior.
The report said that three people were detained in July for various violations that included using mobile phones in the air, smoking in the toilets and mauling an airline staff.
Yip, a flight attendant working for three years, told the Global times that the number of passengers from mainland China and from India have increased rapidly in recent years.
"Some mainland passengers are very impolite to flight attendants and lack manners. They think they can do whatever they want because they paid for the tickets," Yip said, adding that many of them are taking airplanes for the first time.
"Some of them do not know how to flush the toilet, and often mainland passengers do not know how to find their seats or demand to change their seats. Others insist on leaving their seats when the seat belt sign is on and asking to fill up their bottle with water," he added.
Hu Xingdou, a social science professor at the Beijing Institute of Technology, noted that although the Chinese economy has developed, with half of the population fairly well-off and some are nouveau riche, the problem is that "citizens' behavior has not developed as fast as the economy."
Wang Jiangmin, a research fellow with the World Civil Aviation Resource Net, also noted that many Chinese people are not familiar with air travel.
"For example, a delay is not the airline's fault but it is often caused by poor weather and the AOC's instructions. In fact, the airline suffers a loss when their flights are delayed. But many people do not understand this and vent their anger on the airline staff and crew members," Wang said.
The report said that cases of bad behavior continue despite the Civil Aviation Administration's announcement in Dec. 2014 that they are creating a blacklist mechanism to record and punish unacceptable behavior.
Wang added that the behavior of Chinese passengers is improving as people gradually realize that such behavior is wrong, judging from the reactions that rude travelers got from netizens.
