Source: China News Weekly
When Chen Sen, a pilot of Happy Airlines, received the message in the employee group that "all flights before May Day this year are canceled," he was delivering food. He is a pilot for Happy Airlines.
Since April 27th, he has yet to receive any resumption of flight notice. On the morning of May 8th, there was a rumor that an internal notification from Xi'an-based local airline Happy Airlines stated that a relevant plan during the company's suspension period would be released at 10 o'clock. At noon that day, a middle-level administrative staff member of Happy Airlines who had not been paid for ten months told China News Weekly: "Company leaders held a meeting this morning, but employees did not attend." According to透露 by some pilots of the company, one of the meeting contents was to solicit employee opinions and demands regarding work and personal needs, including "normal salaries, hourly fees, social security, etc., as well as other suggestions or plans."
"This can be considered a response to the sudden announcement of the suspension earlier, but we still cannot see the company's attitude and specific plan to solve the issue of unpaid wages," Chen Sen recalled.
It has been four years since Chen Sen's last flight. During this time, Happy Airlines has been mired in operational difficulties and has repeatedly been exposed for severe wage arrears. "The longer the suspension lasts, the more troublesome it becomes," Chen Sen worried not only about delayed wages but also about his precarious career, "My aircraft type qualifications have already expired."
Pilots Delivering Food, Driving Didi, and Selling on the Sidewalks
Chen Sen first experienced wage arrears in early 2021 after the Spring Festival. As an over ten-year veteran of the company, he was aware that the company had been losing money for years and was on a downward trajectory, but he didn't expect that after the first wage arrears incident, the employees' treatment would plummet dramatically.
Happy Airlines was established in 2008 and was essentially created to "support the domestic regional aircraft market." The company was initially co-founded by Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) Group and China Eastern Airlines, with each holding 60% and 40% respectively. The new airline primarily used the MA60 as its main aircraft model, which is a turboprop regional airliner developed by Xi'an Aircraft Company under AVIC.
As the market pioneer of the new airline, China Eastern Airlines quickly withdrew. Due to the financial crisis, China Eastern Airlines could not sustain the increasing debt burden of Happy Airlines and gradually transferred its shares in Happy Airlines to the majority shareholder AVIC Group. By early 2016, China Eastern Airlines completely withdrew. In less than a year, AVIC Group found a new market partner, Okay Airways, one of the first civil aviation companies controlled by private capital in China.
"Over a year after renaming to Happy Okay Airline Management Co., Ltd., this was the fastest period of development for Happy Airlines," Chen Sen told China News Weekly. At its peak, the company was the largest and only commercial-scale operator of domestically produced civilian aircraft in the world, publicly claiming to have 25 MA60 aircraft, but at the time, only around 17-18 aircraft were actually stably operating. Chen explained that due to the high failure rate of the aircraft model, frequent suspensions occurred, and those relatively successful regional markets were quickly overtaken by other airlines.
Chen Sen’s delivery record on April 27th. Image provided by the interviewee.
The financially struggling Happy Okay once again became a hot potato. As the largest shareholder, AVIC began to divest its equity. In November 2018, Shaanxi Province and Xi'an City signed an agreement with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China, with Xi'an Aerospace Investment Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Xi'an Aerospace Investment") taking the lead in restructuring Happy Airlines and becoming its controlling shareholder.
Tianyancha shows that Happy Airlines is still 100% owned by Happy Okay Airline Management Co., Ltd., but Xi'an Aerospace Investment holds 65% of the latter, reducing Okay Airways' shareholding to 5%. Additionally, Tianjin Shuntai Investment Center and Beijing Happy Crowd Investment Management Company hold 24% and 6% respectively.
After this change in equity, Happy Airlines moved back to Xi'an from Tianjin, using Xi'an Xianyang International Airport as its main operating base. "At the time, Happy Airlines invested heavily in acquiring five Boeing 737 aircraft and hired several captains and flight instructors at high salaries; many of them were nearing retirement age, but their flight hour fees were several times higher than those of pilots flying the MA60 model," Chen revealed. He said that at the time, the company's operating strategy began to shift towards "both trunk and regional services," expanding its workforce to over 1,000 people, adding four overnight bases and outstations, and opening over 40 routes.
"The pandemic was just a cover-up for the company's poor management," Chen recalled. At the time, the remaining frequently flown routes were limited to routes between a few cities such as Harbin, Mohe, Jiagedaqi, Yanji, Yantai, and Changsha. After the first round of wage arrears, the company did not provide any explanation, and after a delay of one or two months, they made up the payments. Later, the cycle of arrears became longer and longer. The company euphemistically called it "retaining wages," occasionally only issuing part of the basic salary. Last year, they stopped paying altogether, "like cooking frogs in slowly heating water."
Chen communicated with colleagues in the captain's group and crew groups, and most people's initial mindset when facing the first round of wage arrears was: at least the basic salary could still be paid, and hourly fees were earned through hard work. However, reality proved far more cruel. In April 2021, Chen's last flight took place, and ground training was no longer arranged in August 2021.
"My cumulative flight hours are stuck at over 600 hours. I started as a co-pilot, and now my license has expired," Chen explained. Pilots must operate three takeoffs and landings within three months, including both real aircraft and simulators, and must have at least one real flight experience every two years to maintain their qualifications. To keep his credentials, he self-funded training, but the application for the review exam required the company to submit an application to the Civil Aviation Regional Administration, and due to various reasons, this application was delayed until it expired.
After becoming a co-pilot, Chen bought a house near the airport but hadn’t purchased a car yet, relying on an electric scooter for transportation. After the salary stoppage, to survive, he began working part-time delivering food starting in 2022. His experience was: the worse the weather, the higher the unit price, and late-night deliveries were more profitable than daytime ones. Many times, he returned home after finishing deliveries around 5 or 6 in the morning, passing by the airport, and sat on the grass outside the fence to stare blankly, counting plane after plane flying overhead. "We are both pilots; others fly in the sky, but I run on the ground."
Why not simply quit and join another airline? Chen sighed at his predicament. In the past, when the civil aviation industry was thriving, it was common for pilots to switch jobs. New companies often helped pilots pay compensation to their former employers, such as training costs, which could reach tens of thousands of yuan. But in recent years, with an oversupply of pilots, only young or excellent captains could successfully transfer. For pilots like Chen, stuck as co-pilots with rare qualifications for the MA60 aircraft model, "it can be said that they have virtually no market competitiveness."
Many of Chen's colleagues have settled in Xi'an. Relocating to another city to seek employment at another airline would mean choosing between separating from family or relocating the entire household. A more practical difficulty is that the company has suspended contributions to the five insurances and one housing fund for most employees. Some current employees of Happy Airlines mentioned that the housing fund and other social security contributions have been overdue for more than three years. If someone wants to change jobs, they must first make up the social security payments. Chen revealed that several senior colleagues were unable to retire due to outstanding social security contributions.
The most painful days each month are those for loan repayments. Over four years without pay, Chen has mostly lived from hand to mouth, repaying loans in addition to delivering food. Through recommendations from neighbors, he began tutoring middle school students in English on the side. Pilots are originally a high-income profession, and due to optimistic expectations for future income, premature consumption is common in the industry. Many colleagues have thus taken on significant debt pressures. He introduced that employees across all positions in the company, including pilots, flight attendants, ground staff, and administration, were affected by wage arrears, and many like him worked part-time, increasing income by driving Didi or selling on the sidewalks.
Who Will Take Over This Hot Potato?
"There are rumors that some cities and local state-owned enterprises in Shaanxi Province may have intentions to take over. The company shareholders are in talks," a mid-level administrative staff member of Happy Airlines told China News Weekly.
"This related information has been circulating internally for two to three years without a definitive conclusion," Chen analyzed. Currently, the most valuable asset of the airline is the "Large Aircraft Public Air Transport Carrier" license. Qualifications are a scarce resource, and many places want to realize their "aviation dreams." There have been precedents in the industry for the takeover of private airlines.
In 2020, after seven years of operation, Yunnan Ruili Airlines, which was struggling financially and owed employee salaries, was exposed. In August of the same year, Wuxi Transportation Group initiated the acquisition of Ruili Airlines, and by January of the following year, it became the new controlling shareholder of Ruili Airlines with a 57% stake. Prior to this, another private airline, Longjiang Airlines, changed hands through an auction. Jiangsu Aifang Asset Management Company acquired 98% of the equity in Longjiang Airlines for approximately 771 million yuan.
"The debt situation of Happy Airlines may be more complex," Chen revealed. Employees internally estimated that the total internal wage arrears had exceeded 100 million yuan, and the company also had substantial external debts. In July 2024 and March 2025, at the request of Tianjin Binhai International Airport and Yuanxiang (Fuzhou) International Aviation Port, Happy Airlines was placed under a consumption restriction order, prohibiting the unit and its legal representative Peng Shibing from engaging in high-end consumption and non-essential living and work-related expenditures.
The aforementioned mid-level administrative staff member of Happy Airlines expressed concerns about "acquisition." Unlike previous years, local governments are now more cautious. Taking over not only means solving past debt problems but also involves bearing subsequent operational investments. It requires hiring "professionals familiar with the civil aviation industry" to manage operations; otherwise, the company will revert to the old path after the 2018 equity changes.
Chen added that at the time, the company had business personnel exploring regional routes in southwestern areas. Due to fewer seats and lower operating costs, the MA60 still had a market in支线cities where high-speed rail could not directly reach and road access was inconvenient, and it was welcomed by local governments. However, cooperation ultimately failed to materialize. "There was disagreement within the company's upper management regarding whether to focus primarily on regional services or adopt a balanced approach between trunk and regional services."
Subsequently, Happy Airlines attempted numerous innovations. Chen introduced that to improve occupancy rates and customer experiences, the company increased advertising efforts and built VIP lounges at the main base airports. "But the company only has two Boeing aircraft with a total of eight first-class seats," Chen said.
Another pressing issue is how to handle the current fleet. A pilot of Happy Airlines told China News Weekly, "Currently, a large number of MA60 aircraft are stranded at airports outside the region, serving as 'blood bags' for maintenance parts for operational aircraft." According to Chen's knowledge before the company announced its suspension on April 27th, only two aircraft remained operational for Happy Airlines.
"If successfully acquired, will the MA60 remain the main aircraft model? How will pilots with only qualifications for this model be handled?" Chen is also confused about the future, but for pilots, the most urgent matters right now are: when will the arrears be fully reimbursed? Can their interrupted flight careers be resumed? (Note: Chen Sen is a pseudonym.)
Original article: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7503055597403685430/
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