Are Chinese planes safe?
The first thing to say is that most planes flown in China are not Chinese-manufactured. They are products of either U.S. companies Boeing & McDonnell Douglas or by European manufacturer Airbus. For information about the relative safety of Chinese airlines, an independent evaluation is available at the Aviation Safety Network . Imperial Tours customizes its itineraries to use the main national airlines operating within China, namely Air China, China Eastern and China Southern. All of these airlines are governed by strict safety standards enforced by CAAC, the government airline authority. As a result of the on-going consolidation within the Chinese airline industry, where twenty or so national and regional airlines are being reorganized into three national companies, and because of last-minute changes in schedules beyond Imperial Tours’ control, it does rarely occur that Imperial Tours is forced to use a regional airline, such as Sichuan Airlines or Xiamen Airlines. To the extent that i
