China Airlines

Is China Airlines safe?

Yes, today it is. China Airlines has not had a fatal accident since 2002, and most of its passenger fleet is now A350s, A321neos and 777s. We score it 80. The score is lower than EVA Air's 87 for two reasons: a hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary in 2007 that still sits inside our 20-year window, and a set of recent operational lapses that Taiwan's regulator has had to act on.

The 1990s and the turnaround

China Airlines' reputation was made in eight bad years. On 26 April 1994, an Airbus A300 landing at Nagoya stalled after the first officer accidentally triggered go-around mode and the pilots fought the autopilot; 264 of 271 people died. On 16 February 1998, another A300 came in too high at Taipei, went around, pitched up and stalled, killing all 196 on board. On 22 August 1999, an MD-11 crashed while landing at Hong Kong in a tropical storm, killing three.

The last fatal crash came on 25 May 2002. CI611, a Boeing 747-200, broke up at cruise altitude over the Taiwan Strait, and all 225 people died. Taiwan's investigators traced it to metal fatigue under a doubler fitted after a tail strikeTail strikeWhen the tail of an aircraft touches the runway during take-off or landing, usually because the nose was raised too far or too early.More in the glossary in 1980. The repair had not followed Boeing's structural repair manual.

What changed afterwards is visible in the record. In the 24 years since CI611, no passenger has died on a China Airlines flight. The difference from the 1990s is large: the airline went from four fatal crashes in eight years to none in 24.

CI120: the one hull loss since

On 20 August 2007, a Boeing 737-800 arriving at Okinawa's Naha airport from Taipei caught fire on the stand. Ground staff saw fuel pouring from the right wing; the crew shut down and all 165 people got out before the aircraft exploded and burned. Japan's investigators found that a part of the slat mechanism had most likely come loose after maintenance work about six weeks earlier, fallen into the slat track housing and punctured it when the slats retracted. It was a maintenance error, and the evacuation was a success.

Recent incidents and fines

The last two years show where China Airlines still has work to do.

• CI753, 13 April 2025. An Airbus A350-900 flying from Taipei to Singapore shut down its right engine at 39,000 feet over the South China Sea, about 220 nautical miles north-east of Nha Trang. Instead of landing at a nearer airport, the crew flew about three hours back to Kaohsiung. In September 2025 the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) ruled that the airline had made a procedural error in choosing where to divert, breaking the flight-operations rules by not landing at the nearest suitable airport, and fined it NT$600,000.
• CI186, 12 June 2025. A Boeing 737-800 cleared to land on runway 18R at Busan landed on 18L instead. Korea's investigation board opened a case, with Taiwan's Transportation Safety Board (TTSB) taking part.
• Earlier events: an A330 tail strikeTail strikeWhen the tail of an aircraft touches the runway during take-off or landing, usually because the nose was raised too far or too early.More in the glossary landing at Taipei with a first officer in training (2016), and a 747 freighter that touched down short of the runway at Taipei in 2018.

None of these hurt anyone. But a long single-engine flight that the regulator thought was unnecessary, and a landing on the wrong runway, are the kind of lapses that a 1990s-scarred airline should be most careful to avoid.

The fleet

At the end of 2025, China Airlines had 87 aircraft: 69 passenger jets and 18 freighters (eight 747-400Fs and ten 777Fs), according to its annual report. Since late 2021, 21 A321neos have replaced most of the Boeing 737-800s on regional routes. Long-haul flights use 15 A350-900s and Boeing 777-300ERs, and A330-300s still fly many regional routes; their leases end between 2026 and 2028.

New aircraft are coming: Boeing 787s from 2026, then 15 A350-1000s, 15 Boeing 777-9s and 8 777-8 freighters from about 2029. China Airlines does not publish an average fleet age, so we score the fleet on its mix.

Flying China Airlines safely

• Check the aircraft type on regional routes. An A321neo or A350 is newer than the A330-300s and the few remaining 737-800s.
• Belt on, all flight. Turbulence during typhoon season and over the South China Sea is the most likely way to be hurt.
• Know the group airlines. Mandarin Airlines flies many domestic and short regional routes; Tigerair Taiwan is the group's low-cost airline. Both have their own certificates.

How we scored it

The accident record (84) reflects 24 years without a fatal crash, minus the 2007 Okinawa hull lossHull lossAn accident in which an aircraft is destroyed or damaged beyond economic repair. People may or may not be hurt.More in the glossary. Oversight (84) and environment (84) match EVA Air. Serious incidents (66) are the weakest factor. Compare Korean Air, another airline that rebuilt its safety record after the 1990s.