A growing number of travelers are protesting airline delays by refusing to get off planes that arrive at their destination late until they receive monetary compensation, said the industry watchdog.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China may have unwittingly created the problem when it announced guidelines last month calling for airlines to publish compensation plans for delayed passengers.

That demand, which only one small domestic airline has met so far, may have emboldened angry passengers to stand up and fight for compensation, according to industry analysts.

"We have noticed that the number of passengers refusing to get off planes after delays has increased during the past month," Zhong Ning, a spokeswoman for the CAAC, told Shanghai Daily during a telephone interview Friday. "We don't support such behavior as it leads to more delays."

Zhang said passenger protests have become an almost daily event in China of late.

She didn't provide exact numbers of the flights or passengers involved.

Just Friday, two passengers refused to get off a China Eastern flight to Qingdao, Shandong Province, that had first been delayed and then forced to return to Shanghai mid-flight due to mechanical problems.

The two passengers refused to get off the plane after it returned for repairs, said Cui Xiaowei, a passenger on the flight.

"They left the plane later. I don't know whether they got the compensation," said the 26-year-old.

The plane, flight MU5511, was scheduled to leave Shanghai for Qingdao at 8:45am. It took off at 9:30am before being forced to return to the city.

After the delay, passengers were finally able to board a different plane, which took off at 2:40pm, about six hours behind schedule.

When a plane flying from Qingdao to Shanghai was delayed by more than six hours earlier this month, about 30 passengers refused to get off. They were eventually given 300 yuan (US$36) each as compensation.

A regional carrier operating out of Shenzhen has announced its compensation policy following the CAAC's demand last month, but analysts say none of the country's biggest airlines want to announce their policies ahead of the competition.

"I have no idea when the policies will come out. None of the three largest carriers are ready to be the first to publicize such rules," said a manager with China Eastern Airlines Co surnamed Xu.

A former airline executive, who worked with a foreign carrier for about three years, said airlines' compensations should not be announced to the public.

(Shanghai Daily July 31, 2004)