Air China Ltd., the nation’s flag carrier, is facing heat from regulators for a July 10 incident when an aircraft descended rapidly after a pilot accidentally turned off the air-conditioner mid-air.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China has ordered the airline to cut its narrow-body jet flight capacity by 10 percent, state television CCTV reported on its WeChat account on Wednesday, adding that would amount to a reduction of 5,400 flight hours a month. CAAC also imposed a fine of 50,000 yuan ($7,462) on the carrier and scrapped the licenses of the pilots involved, the channel said.
One of the pilots, smoking an electronic cigarette, tried to turn off a circulation fan to prevent smoke from reaching the cabin, but instead ended up making the error, according to an initial probe by the CAAC. Oxygen masks dropped in the Boeing Co. 737 aircraft flying from Hong Kong to Dalian as it lost altitude, but eventually it landed at its destination safely.
The measures by the regulator are likely to hurt the Beijing-based company, which is already bracing for higher expenses from a weakening yuan and rising fuel costs. The penalty could result in about a 3 percentage point drop in Air China’s monthly available seat kilometers, a measure of airline capacity, according to an estimate by Tianfeng Securities Co.
CAAC had earlier imposed limits on the number of flights airports can add to ensure punctuality and safety, slowing down capacity expansion among mainland carriers.