TRANSASIA AIRLINES SUSPENDS FLIGHTS TODAY, PASSENGERS SUFFER|復興航空無預警今停飛 民眾忙退換票

TransAsia Airways abruptly announced yesterday that it would suspend all fights today. The Civil AeroNAUtics Administration has confirmed that this would affect over 5,000 passengers. The story began after the company's ticket booking system partially shut down, and soon rumors began swirling on the internet that the company's flights might soon be suspended. The company categorically denied the rumors yesterday morning, but its share price swiftly plunged and hit the 7% trading curb. Later in the afternoon, it backtracked on its morning statement and confirmed with the CAA that all fights would be suspended today. Later today, TransAsia will hold an emergency board meeting, after which a major announcement is expected. Meanwhile, the company will apply for a voluntary trading suspension on it shares starting today. Passengers who had heard the news that TransAsia Airways was to halt its flights thronged the desk. Some were originally scheduled to set off happily to Japan on holiday and were shocked. ==MR. CHIU== I'm stunned, I worked for a year and its hard to take time off to arrange this holiday. Mr Lin who arranged a family holiday to Japan also rushed along to change his tickets. ==MR. LIN== The Japanese travel company called me saying they would arrange other flights for me. On the morning of Nov. 21, the TransAsia Airways online booking system shut down and internet runners spread that the company would stop flying. Workers were uneasy and around midday, the share price dropped dramatically to NT$5.2. The company denied that there was anything wrong and only said that the booking system was down. The share price stabilized back up by around 7 percent. ==Reporter and TransAsia ground staff== The company hasn't told us anything. Did they tell you business would be halted for a day? TransAsia has suffered two crashes in two consecutive years, which damaged its reputation. In July 2014 Kaohsiung to magong flight GE222 crashed while making an emergency landing in Penghu and killed 48 people. In February 2015, flight GE235 crashed in the Keelung River in Taipei City, killing 43 people and injuring 15. In August this year, the board of its subsidiary budget flight company, V Air, announced that the company would suspend flights for a year from October and merge with TransAsia Airways. The Nov. 22 meeting may announce that business will be suspended for a day. The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that only TransAsia Airways suspended flights for the day and had not informed them until the afternoon of Nov. 21 and had not applied to suspend flights. Doing so without prior CAA approval was against regulations and it could be fined from NT$600,000 to NT$3 million. The company's press release of Nov.21 announced an emergency board meeting on Nov. 22 after which it would make further announcements. It apologized to all 5,000 plus passengers flying on Nov. 22. TRANSLATED BY：CLARE LEAR 一接到停航的消息，焦急的民眾趕緊來到復興航空的櫃臺，原本今天就要開心出發到日本，沒想到行程卻被打亂了。 ==民眾 邱先生== 很錯愕 因為畢竟工作1年 安排假期其實也比較不容易啦 還有這位旅居日本的林老先生，也因為臨時接到日本旅行社告知停航，趕緊和家人來換票。 ==民眾 林老先生== 現在日本旅行社打電話給我 說這邊會安排別的飛機讓我搭 其實就在21號上午，復興航空的官網就出現訂位鎖死情形，網路傳出復興航空要宣布停業的消息，員工人心惶惶，股價在11點50分左右一度跌停，來到5.2元的價位，儘管復興航空強調只是訂位系統出問題，並強調公司正常營運，隨後股價跌停打開，但跌幅仍達7%以上。 ==復興航空地勤== 公司都沒有任何的通知 目前還沒有通知我們(停業一天) 其實復興航空連續兩年的空難，大傷元氣。前年7月23日，高雄飛馬公GE222班機，在澎湖緊急迫降失敗墜毀，造成48人死亡，GE235班機去年2月4日，在墜入基隆河失事，造成43人罹難、15人受傷。 今年8月復興航空，子公司威航董事會決議，從10月4日起停業1年，並撤銷與復興的合併案，如今又傳出，復興航空明天11月22日將停業1天。 民航局表示，只停飛一天的航空業者只有復興航空，國籍航空可說是首例，而且直到下午才告知民航局，也沒提出停飛申請，沒經過民航局核准，已違反民航法相關規定，將面臨60萬到300萬元罰款。 而復興航空21號傍晚發新聞稿表示，22號將召開臨時董事會，會後向社會大眾說明。對22號全天受影響的旅客，致上最深歉意，民航局統計，受影響旅客數，國際、國內和兩岸航線，共5113人。 記者 吳雅瑜 林國煌 張梓嘉 台北報導