春秋航空“黑名单”之争

Shanghai-based Spring Airlines is engaged in a heated debate regarding consumer rights. The company has blacklisted a few passengers and refused to sell air tickets to them. But questions are popping up as to whether airlines have the power to create blacklists.

Spokesman Zhang Wuan of Spring Airlines says the company has to do it due to the passengers' unruly behavior.

"We can totally understand the passengers' feeling regarding delayed flights, but some passengers behaved so irrationally such as refusing to board the plane, blocking the boarding gate and preventing other passengers from boarding the plane. So we came up with the list."

A passenger surnamed Liu complained to the media that she was banned from buying tickets from Spring Airlines after receiving 200 yuan in compensation on April 30 due to flight delays. Later when she tried to purchase another air ticket from the same company, but she was told she is on the company's "blacklist", which immediately triggered heated discussion online about growing public dissatisfaction regarding flight delays.

The company says the blacklist policy began in 2007. It's created to block unruly passengers as well as ticket scalpers.

Some passengers have different opinions.

"I think what the airline company has done is right. If the passengers' behavior was too irrational then it is fine to ban them for safety concerns."

"I think it is unreasonable to blacklist these passengers. If the airline provided good service, then I think no one would behave irrationally like that."

Spring Airline is one of only a few budget airlines in China. They don't provide meals or water on board, and they normally don't compensate for flight delays, but their ticket prices are low and very competitive.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China also agreed before that there are no specific laws or regulations saying that airlines must compensate passengers for delayed flights, and low-cost companies like Spring Airline are free to create their own service model.

Zou Jianjun, a professor at China Civil Aviation University supports Spring Airline's policy.

"When the passengers purchased tickets from Spring Airline, they were already informed that there was no compensation. But the airline company did compensate the passengers due to extreme situation. I personally support blacklisting passengers due to irrational behavior."

But lawyer Ying Feng disagrees. He says as a public service entity, the blacklist is wrong.

"If we look at this issue from the angle of running a business, then Spring Airline Company as one of the parties on the contract has the right to refuse to compensate the passengers. But as a commercial entity providing a public service, they are automatically taking social responsibility as public service providers according to law. So a blacklist is wrong from this point of view."

Currently China lacks legislation concerning such issues. At the same time, the Civil Aviation Bureau of China has also indicated that they need to open parallel air routes, thus fewer planes will be delayed due to busy airways.

For CRI, I'm Liu Min.