Delay or Cancellation

My flight might be changed, cancelled, suspended, and delayed. How will you deal with my seat or ticket under the above circumstances?

If any of the following circumstances occurs, CSN is free from providing any prior notice of change of the type of plane or flight course, and may cancel, suspend, delay or postpone the flight in accordance with the relevant regulations:

If the carrier, due to any of the above reasons, cancels or delays a flight, and correspondingly fails to provide passengers with the booked seats (including cabin class), or fails to stop at the stopover or destination for passengers, or causes passengers to miss their connecting flight, CSN would adopt the following measures when considering the reasonable needs of affected passengers:

CSN shall adopt all necessary measures to avoid delays for passengers and their luggage transportation. CSN shall not assume any responsibility if it has adopted all necessary measures or it is unable to adopt those measures.

What is “Unwilled refund”?

“Unwilled refund” refers to the fact that passengers require the refund for their tickets if the carrier cancels, delays,, changes the flight , flies ahead of schedule or fails to provide the booked seats.

How will your airline arrange my accommodation in case the above circumstances?

When the flight is delayed or cancelled due to the reasons related to CSN, such as plane maintenance, flight allocation and aircrew condition, food and accommodation for passengers shall be provided free of charge by CSN, as appropriate.

If the delay or cancellation occurs at departure due to reasons not related to CSN, including but not limited to weather conditions, unexpected events, air traffic control, airport fault and passengers' problem, etc, food and accommodation shall be arranged by CSN at the passengers' expense.

If delay or cancellation occurs at the stopover, the carrier shall be responsible for offering food and accommodation for passengers regardless of the reason.

If my scheduled flight or plane is changed, what will happen to my seat?

If CSN is unable to provide the cabin of the original class due to the change of flight or plane, CSN will do our best to make arrangements in the manner you desire. If passengers do not accept the arrangement, unwilled refund shall be permitted.

The weather at the destination airport is fine, and there are also planes landing and taking off at departure airport with good visibility. Why is it still announced that my flight is delayed due to the weather?

First of all, low cloud above airport runway and thunderstorm area are ordinary factors leading to the delay of flights; secondarily, the navigation channel of planes is strictly restricted. The good weather at the destination airport does not mean that the navigation channel is suitable for flying. Therefore, the flight might be delayed purposes of passenger safety.

Flying to the same destination, some planes can take off on time, and some are announced to be delayed because of weather. Why?

The reasons are as follows:

Sometimes a flight is cancelled because of weather, why does your airline simply cancel the flight rather than arrange another one?

Whether another flight can be arranged after the cancellation is determined by the following factors: the approval of air traffic control, transfer of passengers to the next day, duty time restrictions of aircrew and plane condition. In addition, flight safety and airworthiness are also taken into consideration.

Passengers are notified that the plane can not land at the destination airport or has to make a return flight due to reasons of weather just before they arrive at the destination airport, while there are also some planes landing normally. Why?

First of all, although the weather department of civil aviation releases accurate weather changing trends at any moment, the weather is changing constantly. When the weather conditions do not conform to the standards for takeoff and landing, the plane will be unable to land but hover until the weather becomes better. For the consideration of safety or fuel capacity, the plane has to land on an alternate airport. Secondarily, when the weather is on the verge of being standards, the captain shall decide whether to land or not, while different captains may have different judgments.

All passengers are onboard, and the cabin doors are closed for takeoff. But the plane stays there for a long time, while those beside them can take off normally. Why?

After cabin doors are closed, and everything is ready, the captain needs to make departure application to the air traffic control department. The air traffic control department determines whether the plane can take off according to the traffic flow. Other planes are not subject to the control of the traffic flow due to different destinations and directions.

Everything is ready, but the plane is only gliding on the runway rather than taking off. Why?

There are many planes taking off and landing in airports, especially in busy ones. To ensure the safety of operations, air traffic control department, in the light of flight flow in the air and on the ground, commands and controls planes in airports, requiring them to glide and take off at the safe interval. In some busy airports or at peak hours of general airport, air traffic is overloaded, as is ground traffic. In that case, it is normal that planes have to glide on the runway and even wait for much longer time.

Now that there is traffic control, why do not allow passengers go aboard rather than stay in the narrow and small cabin?

The takeoff of all flights at the same airport is based on a series of orders of the air traffic control department. Air traffic control department determines the priority sequence of takeoff of planes in the light of captains’ departure application times. And the captain can not make the departure application unless cabin doors are closed and everything is ready for takeoff. Therefore, the earlier the application is made, the shorter the passengers need to wait.

Sometimes, passengers have waited for a long time due to air traffic flow control, but in the end the plane does not take off. Passengers need to get off the plane and go back to the terminal building to continue to wait. In some cases, the plane is even ready to take off on the runway, but still glides back. Why?

First of all, the planned fuel capacity of a plane is determined comprehensively according to the average gliding time at the airport and airborne time. If the plane has been waiting on the ground too long and consumes too much fuel, the fuel capacity will be insufficient for the plane to fly to the destination and the plane has to glide back to the landing field for refueling; secondarily, if the plane can not obtain the exact takeoff order from air traffic control department, or in case of emergencies, the plane may glide back as well for the reason that the physical condition of pilots may affect the flight safety.

When a flight is delayed for various reasons, why are there no backup planes for evacuating passengers?

Firstly, when a flight has been delayed for a long time, the carrier may shorten the delay time via the adjustment of the flight operation plan, including the transfer of backup planes. But the backup planes are not available at every airport; secondly, temporary plane transfer plan is subject to the approval of air traffic control department. Therefore, even though there are backup planes, they may not be used for flights.

The flight is delayed again and again, and there is never any accurate takeoff time. Why?

At present, flight delay is the major reason for passengers’ distrust of carriers and this is actually the shortcoming caused by the continuous provision of delay information. Each airline corporation has a dispatching center carefully arranging the flights of all planes. Once there is a problem with the operation, such as plane failure or airport closing, the whole flight will be affected. The dispatching center will make adjustments in time in the light of the actual situation so as to restore the normal flight operation as early as possible, notify the subsequent flights to make the corresponding preparations, and estimate a rough delay time. But the situation keeps on changing, and there might be new situations in the process of dispatching. A new delay can lead to the change of plans, thus making a flight put off again and again.

Do the cancellation and merging of flights arising from delays infringe upon the rights and interests of passengers?

There are many reasons for the carrier to cancel or merge flights due to delays, such as the Airline Corporation itself, air traffic control, airport and national important activities, etc. If the delay is for the reason of the carrier itself, on the one hand, the carrier will make compensation for the loss of passengers’ rights and interests. On the other hand, the cancellation and merging of flights is to maintain the rights and interests of passengers, reducing the impact on subsequent flights and restoring flight operation as early as possible.

If a flight has been delayed for a long time, is it possible to arrange another plane to pick up passengers?

Normally speaking, the carrier will consider arranging another plane and aircrews if available so as to avoid severe long-time delays of flights.

What are the delays for dispatching reason and plan reason?

Delay for dispatching reason refers to the time delay caused by the CSN’s adjustment to the flight in the light of needs for processing the flight operation; delay for plan reason refers to the delay of subsequent flights due to deficient plan time of flights segments or deficient turnaround time of flight in plan formulation.

The carrier, airport and air traffic control department give different replies for the reason for delay. Why?

On the same flight, the carrier, airport, and air control department might obtain different information from different resources. But as a carrier, our corporation will inform passengers of delay information the first time.

When a flight is cancelled, can the takeoff time can be put off to several months, or even one year later?

After a flight is cancelled, the carrier will provide passengers with the closest subsequent flight or the closest flight of the most suitable for the travel of passengers. Once the flight is changed, the contract to buy a new ticket shall be deemed to have been established. If passengers do not accept the arrangement, they can refund the tickets in full amount according to provisions of unwilled refund. If it is inconvenient for passengers to refund the tickets at the time, they can go to ticket offices directly affiliated to CSN and show the corresponding certificates to refund their tickets within the valid period of the tickets.

In case of flight delay, what services can passengers enjoy?

Unless the law provides otherwise, CSN will offer the following services for your selection if the cancellation of a flight leads to the late takeoff of your flight, the failure of landing on the destination or stopover, or the missing of booked connecting flight:

Arrange the earliest flight of CSN with available seats free of charge or prolong the valid period of tickets if necessary;

During the reasonable period of time, arrange flights of our airline or other carriers free of charge via the change of route, or send passengers to the destination stated on the tickets via means of carriage acceptable to both parties, without additional charges;

Refund tickets according to provisions of unwilled refund.

Help for abnormal flights:

When the flight is delayed or cancelled due to the fault of CSN, such as plane maintenance, flight allocation, business, and aircrew, dynamic information and food and accommodation for the passengers will be provided free of charge by CSN as appropriate.

If the delay or cancellation occurs at departure due to reasons not related to CSN, such as weather conditions, unexpected event, air traffic control, security inspection or passengers' fault etc, CSN will offer the dynamic flight information and assist in the arrangement of food and hotel accommodation for passengers at their own cost.

If a delay or cancellation occurs at the stopover, CSN shall be responsible for offering food and accommodation for passengers free of charge no matter what the reason is.