Brent Hannon/TAIPEI
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has closed domestic carrier U-Land Airlines for repeated maintenance safety violations, as part of an effort to improve the safety record of the country's local airlines.
"At this stage, U-Land has been shut down," says the CAA's standards division, which is in charge of airline inspections. "Several aspects of their operations were unsafe. We gave them a warning, and they didn't reply, so they have been grounded."
The CAA foresees no immediate resumption of U-Land's services, saying: "We haven't seen any system-wide correction by U-Land at this stage." The carrier's fleet includes two Boeing MD-82s and a Shorts 360-300.
Another domestic regional, Daily Air, has also had its operator's licence suspended.
The CAA says it is trying to bring domestic carriers up to international standards. Airlines with numerous in-flight safety problems have been subjected to a greater number of inspections, while airlines with fewer problems have fewer inspections.
The standards division says: "If the operations are running smoothly, without discrepancies, we reduce the rate of inspections." It declines to name airlines that have been subject to extra inspections, however.
Source: Flight International
