Chinese travelers cancel Malaysia Airlines tickets after MH17 tragedy

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-07-19

A bouquet of flowers placed at an empty Malaysia Airlines counter at
 Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, together with a picture of one of the people
aboard the flight. (File photo/CNS)

Many Chinese travelers have canceled their flights with Malaysia Airlines or asked to switch to another airline after flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on Thursday, the second tragedy to befall the airline in four months, after the disappearance of flight MH370 in March, reports Yicai, the website of Shanghai's China Business News.

Chinese nationals accounted for around two thirds of the 239 people on board flight MH370, which went missing en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8 and which has still not been located despite extensive searching. Though there is no evidence to suggest that Malaysia Airlines was at fault for the loss of either flight, the second disaster in a short space of time may prove fatal for its reputation, at least where Chinese travelers are concerned.

Since the disappearance of MH370, in which the response from both the airline and the Malaysian government was widely criticized in China, the number of Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia has declined by 40%. Chinese travel agencies had planned to promote tours to Malaysia for the summer peak season but China Environment International Travel Service says after the crash of MH17 on Thursday that its customers who bought Malaysia Airlines tickets have all asked to cancel their reservations or demanded that they travel to Malaysia by another airline.

Malaysia's loss could be Thailand's gain despite the political unrest in the country, as Bangkok will waive visa fees for Chinese nationals from Aug. 1 to Oct. 31 this year in a bid to bring tourists back.

Flight MH17 took off from Amsterdam bound for Kuala Lumpur on Thursday but crashed close to Ukraine's border with Russia, killing all 298 people on board. Pro-Russian separatists have denied they launched the missile that brought down the plane, as reported by major Western news outlets. International monitors have reached the crash site to investigate, according to CNN and BBC.

CORRECTS CITY - Two women pray with others during a prayer session organized

 by former schoolmates of a cabin crew member of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, which

 was shot down in Ukraine, at a mosque in Putrajaya, Malaysia Saturday, July 19, 
2014. Malaysia's transport minister said the country is "deeply concerned" that the
site in Ukraine where the Malaysia Airlines jetliner was shot down with 298 people
onboard "has not been properly secured." (AP Photo/Satish Cheney)

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