Both sides described the gesture as an important step towards a final amicable settlement to the conflict, which erupted after Japan Airlines (JAL) flight 782 from Beijing to Tokyo was diverted to Osaka due to bad weather in January 27.

Li Hao, a passenger on the flight, said he and other passengers from the Chinese mainland were treated poorly after the plane landed at Osaka Airport.

Li claimed the Chinese passengers, including a number of elderly and young, were forced to stay in the airport's waiting hall overnight while other passengers were given hotels or transferred to Tokyo by train.

Chinese passengers also complained that the airline failed to provide hot water and food, serving only cold juice and sandwiches instead.

Aoyama, so far the highest JAL official to apologize to the Chinese passengers, also promised JAL would improve services and expressed deep remorse for a lack of communication with the Chinese passengers since all 90 of them had submitted a written complaint to the Chinese Consumers' Association in February.

The district manager of the Japanese company's Tianjin office, Inada Hiroshi, also attended yesterday's meeting.

On Monday, a joint statement between Japan Airlines and the Chinese passengers to settle the conflict through mediation was released in Tianjin after efforts by Wang Xiaobin, a lawyer representing JAL, and Li Hao and Xu Zhijun, representatives of the passengers.

Both sides have not yet worked out a deal on compensation and have decided to leave the issue for a later date.

During yesterday's meeting, the three Chinese representatives - Li Hao, Li Guishan and Xu Zhijun - said they were happy to see things continue to get better and expected to continue communicating with Japan Airlines, especially with legal representatives from the company's headquarters in Japan.

After listening to complaints and suggestions from some of the Chinese passengers, Aoyama described measures JAL has taken since January to improve its services.

"We have increased the number of Chinese hostesses on planes connecting Chinese and Japanese cities from two to three to help Chinese consumers to feel more comfortable," he said.

Aoyama also promised that more measures will be adopted to serve Chinese passengers better in the future, including Chinese signs in Japan's airports and more ground servicemen who can speak Chinese.

Li Guishan, a professor with the Tianjin University of Technology who was on the flight in January, voiced loud complaints about the airline's ground crew and said there were problems with the drinking water supply, telephone services and banking services at the airport.

Despite this, Li said he accepted the improvement efforts being made by the airline and said, "We will still take JAL flights if the services improve."

(China Daily 07/05/2001)