Not many airlines exist, that are not only the flag bearers of their countries, but are not even owned by the Government. Once such airline is the china airlines.  There are numerous reasons of this rare occurrence.

First of all, long before the world war II, there was raging a magnanimous civil war within China. The war that began just after the world war I and lasted until years after world war II.

This has direct effect on the growth and economy of the country. Before the beginning of the world war I actually, China was the proud owner of 3 airlines.  However, unfortunately, when the communist party took over the hold of the government during the civil war, the only airline that was left and transferred to the neo Taiwan, was “civil air transport”.
The people of China were too perturbed by the turbulence within their own country to bother about the availability of airlines of their own. Unlike other countries, they never though of taking refuge else where and concentrated on peace talks with in their country. Due to the Sino Japanese war during the world war II, there was a transient cessation of the civil war with in as china stood to its full height, in protecting its border. With Hiroshima Nagasaki, Japan was thrown out of the world war, China was left idle and hence went back to resume its civil war. No one was bothered with china airlines of any sort. With time, the fruits of people’s efforts showed up and China finally came out of the darkness of the civil war, that had destroyed economics, industries and numerous lives in over thirty years of the war. To date, Taiwan and China has severed economic ties.

Now all this jargon means that effectively, China had no airline of its own. After the end of the civil war, china airline was established, with the control held by the ROC Government. Since economically the country was still in a fragile status, there was no question of scheduled flights. There were a few chartered flights only initially. In 4-5 years time, China began its domestic scheduled flights, and in another 3 years time, its first international flight became air borne. The trans-pacific flight did not happen until another 10 years. During all this time, the growth followed a rather horizontal slope, slightly upwards at times, but mostly static. But strangely what air china managed to do was reach in the hearts of people all over china, in spite of its intermittent growth.

It is indeed bad fortune of china airline, when it reports a 3.2 fatality incident in 106  flights, where as the world itself report an incident rate of 2. Over the years it has had over 17 random accidents, with more than  800 fatalities with the largest one in 2002, killing a total of 230 including passengers and the crew itself. Beginning from the 1970 flight, the last fatal incident was in2002, and this includes an assassination of a chinese senator in service, during a hijack attempt. Indeed air china has had a hard time convincing the global world of its safety measures, which people still don’t grade as adequate. In fact  the sky team alliance is not been solidified only due to these issues. In spite of all this, china airlines continue to improving their standards. In addition to a frequent flyer program called Dynasty, they have in flight entertainment in the form of PTV. Their Dynasty program includes Gold, Emerald and Paragon packages, depending upon the miles. The program it self is quite popular amongst the masses.

Many airlines have suffered disastrous fates when left to cry upon spilled milk. But china airline did not believe in doing so and continued the hard work, sure of their capabilities and indeed they are embarking towards a journey soaring high to the skies and beyond.