On July 22nd, the Taiwanese Legislature passed a vote to rename China Airlines,. The move was made to prevent misunderstanding with competing ‘mainland’ based airline companies.
However, since the resolution from the Taiwanese government is not mandatory, China Airlines have remained largely silent on the issue and nothing more has happened.
According to the government’s suggestion, the Ministry of Transportation should draft an efficient proposal to enhance the recognition and identification of China Airlines.
The confusion in this case is caused by the word “China” and can cause mix ups with Air China, one of the major China based airlines from Beijing.
Still, some legislators are concerned the move might causes tremendous losses.
A report by accountants, says the brand value of “China Airlines” is worth more than US$ 1 billion, and renaming also brings with it the possibility of losing certain freedoms in the air.
And, even those supporting the rebranding have differing opinions.
Since the pandemic has caused a huge reduction in passengers, now is the perfect time to minimize financial losses related to rebranding.
As Taiwan is not a member of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), China Airlines can decide its own future, without ICAO approval, and is thus not constrained by any ICAO restrictions.
Nevertheless, changing its name to “Taiwan Airlines” might cause China Airlines greater losses, since China Airlines receives forty percent of its total revenue from cross-strait flights.
As a result, it is more likely to use the word “Formosa” or “Taipei” to carry less potential offence to China.
And for now, despite the potential turbulence seen in renaming the brand – or not – the company is currently flying through clean air with China Airlines profits at NTD$ 2 billion from its cargo services in the second quarter, while other domestic carriers are still suffering because of the pandemic.
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