The Beijing Capital Airport is not only the busiest airport in the world by traffic volume, but it's apparently also the most vindictive and spiteful when it comes to the treatment of non-national airlines. Or that's the most likely explanation we can think of for how a four hour flight to Beijing transformed into a thirty hour Odyssey that included a two day layover in Taiyuan while our plane was cleared for "permission to land" in the capital.

Admittedly, the delay could have been an accident. Or it could have involved mechanical difficulties. But we're leaning towards corruption as the most likely answer, and if you're interested in the reasons why, Echo and Sylvia in our advanced show for today as they talk about this epic flight delay, and share some local gossip about the airline industry in China. And with that in mind, we'd be interested to hear if anyone has similar stories, so please feel invited to leave a comment in the discussion section below, or write Echo directly with your experiences at echo@popupchinese.com.
 said on
July 18, 2013
Hi there Echo and Sylvia, would it be possible to have the transcript of this lesson as well? Many thanks!
 said on
July 19, 2013
I am happy to work on these when I have the time. A transcript for an earlier lesson will be coming up soon.
 said on
July 19, 2013
lovely, looking forward to :)
 said on
July 31, 2013
Hello, would 廉价航空公司 be a good translation of "budget / low cost airline" or is there a better expression?
 said on
July 31, 2013
@paulmccarthy79

That's exactly it:

http://baike.baidu.com/view/1510539.htm

 said on
August 1, 2013
Echo, 我特别同情你遭到的情况。这半年来我在路上经常遇到火车的晚点,而每次都愤怒。最令人生气就是根本没有及时宣布信息。比如说你的火车是8:00点要出发,可是到7:59他们才发现该列车不会按时进站。

我觉得如果某个航空公司立了一个新的决策,就是说不管什么原因,只要飞机延迟,空姐就会把现金发到每乘客的手里,那么该航空公司会特别受大家的欢迎。
 said on
August 2, 2013
@f8daniel,

哈哈哈,我也同意,不过那样的话航空公司就赔死了 :)

--Echo

echo@popupchinese.com