Has Experienced Two Major Accidents Since 2014

Struggling Taiwanese carrier TransAsia Airways has cancelled all of its flight and closed its doors.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in a news conference Tuesday, a company representative said that an emergency board meeting was held in which it was determined that the airline should be shuttered. All of its 84 flights scheduled for Tuesday were cancelled, which the Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said stranded about 5,000 passengers.

The airline said it would be unable to repay convertible bonds that were to come due next week.

The airline's aircraft have been involved in two accidents with multiple fatalities since 2014. In one, 48 people were fatally injured July of 2014 when an ATR-72 went down on the island of Penghu during a landing attempt in poor weather. Another ATR-72 went down in February of 2015 after clipping an elevated highway and falling into Taipei's Keelung River. That accident fatally injured 43 people.

The 2015 accident was attributed to pilot error. After ordering retraining for all of its pilots, 10 failed to pass the first stage of the Civil Aeronautics Administration's qualification process.

Political changes also contributed to the airline's woes. Visitors from mainland China fell after the election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who's Democratic Progressive Party ran afous of Beijing for advocating Taiwanese independence.

Analysts said that TransAsia's recovery strategy was weak, which also was a factor in the airline's demise.

(Images from file)

FMI: www.caa.gov.tw/en/bbs/index01.asp?sno=20