Forbes
Date: Jul 23, 2020
By: Will Horton, Senior Contributor
A China Airlines Boeing 747-400 sits on the tarmac at the Chiang Kai-shek International airport in Taoyuan, Taiwan. (AP Photo/Jerome Favre, File) ASSOCIATED PRESS
So coveted is national carrier status that when British Airways in the ’90s applied global emblems to its aircraft instead of U.K. insignia, rival Virgin Atlantic added a Union Jack sticker on planes and proclaimed itself “Britain’s Flag Carrier.”
For China Airlines, its national branding created a blame game culminating with Taiwan’s legislature this week ordering renaming proposals. But aircraft will not be in the paint shop anytime soon, if ever – Taiwan’s lively political parties may be jockeying.
“The ministry should make China Airlines more identifiable internationally with Taiwanese images to protect Taiwan’s national interests,” said legislative president Yu Shyi-kun of the independence-leaning party DPP. “Overseas it is mistaken for a Chinese airline.”
[FULL STORY]
