Greater Bay Airlines on Wednesday said it had removed a team of commercial and planning managers, which oversaw the allocation of aircraft resources, due to the recent flight cancellations by the carrier.

In the airline's report to the Civil Aviation Department, it said a lack of internal communication and insufficient customer service support exacerbated the carrier's scheduling failures.

Around 5,500 passengers were believed to have been affected by the cancellation of 128 flights in February and March.

According to details released on Wednesday, four of the cancellations were by a charterer which put on extra flights following the deadly plane crash in South Korea's Muan International Airport in December.

The airline also assured the move had "no impact on the safety" of its operations.

The report said the new team – comprising experienced personnel as part of a reform – had failed to observe the company's protocol for cancellation decision making, and also "took excessive time to make decisions" and "communicated the decision poorly".

It noted the team did not consider the airline's customer service response capability, which did not have sufficient resources to handle "such a significant number of customer interactions at one time".

"[The airline] remains committed to assuring a reliable service to our passengers. The new team concerned has been removed from the company," the report said.

Also in the report, the airline put forward a number of measures such as strengthening internal procedures for flight scheduling, boosting communication, and ensuring fleet and manpower stability and reliability.

Transport minister Mable Chan expressed hope Greater Bay Airlines had learned a lesson, adding it has to regularly report on its operations to the authorities.

"[The Air Transport Licensing Authority] has asked the airline to submit regular reports on a monthly basis. If the airline is planning to cancel flights in future, it will have to provide a written report to the authority and list out the facts and information of the arrangements," she said.

The airline initially cited a delay in new aircraft delivery and the need for plane inspections for the cancellation, but the report later revealed "a lack of internal communication and a lack of co-operation from customer service operations" as a contributing factor.

"From the time when [the airline] shared information at the time of the incident, to now when there's been a detailed report outlining what happened, I believe this is a process," Chan said when asked if the carrier had given an inaccurate explanation at first.

The minister stressed the administration would consider an airline's operations and performance when making arrangements on flight allocations and air traffic rights.

In response, the low-cost carrier again apologised to affected passengers and said it had put in place a number of measures to prevent similar incidents from happening again.

"We will maintain close contact with the Transport and Logistics Bureau regarding the company's operations, and continue to strive to provide safe and reliable services to our customers," the airline said.
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Last updated: 2025-02-12 HKT 16:09