Okay suspends flights

Okay Airways has started a planned one-month suspension of passenger flights 10 days ahead of schedule. The suspension was meant to start on 15th December but as of yet there is no explanation why it began so early.

Okay’s cargo services are used as a local partner for FedEx and operations there are expected to continue.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) forced the country’s first private airline to withhold flights at the request of the airline’s controlling shareholder, Shanghai-based Junyao Group Co. with whom it is having a financial and management dispute.

Junyao’s chairman, Wang Junjin, said that Okay has been suffering operating losses owing to “its unclear management focus to operate trunk routes and regional routes at the same time, as well as to explore not only the passenger transport market but also the cargo transport market”.

Relations are strained between the two, especially since Wang Junjin recently fired Okay’s president, Liu Jieyin, due to “unclear management focus to operate trunk routes and regional routes at the same time”.

Flights are due to resume in January before the Chinese new year.