No relief in sight for long-suffering passengers as Chinese air services go from bad to worse

These days, any frequent air traveller to the mainland can recount nightmarish experiences of being helplessly stranded at airports amid long delays while they endure horrible service from airline and airport staff.

My personal worst occurred two years ago when I tried to take Air China's regular 5.30pm shuttle from Hong Kong to Beijing. Flight CA110 is supposed to take 3½ hours. But I didn't arrive in Beijing until 5.30pm the next evening - the result of bad weather at my destination, terrible airline management and the mainland's dreadful air traffic control system.

So, it would have surprised no one when the mainland's leading airports and airlines were singled out for having the worst delays in the world in a report by FlightStats, a popular US-based air travel data provider.

Eight of the 10 most delayed Asian airlines were Chinese carriers. Beijing Capital International and Shanghai Hongqiao International airports - two of the nation's busiest airports - rank at the bottom of 35 major international airports surveyed in terms of delays and cancellations.

Beijing's on-time departure rate was only 18 per cent last month, with 42 per cent of flights delayed by 45 minutes or more. Hongqiao's - the second worst on the list - had only a 24 per cent on-time rate.

While most frustrated passengers suffer silently in the face of delays of one or two hours - or even four or five - some go to extreme lengths to vent their anger. In the past few months, there have been reports of irate passengers staging sit-ins, refusing to disembark or even commandeering a plane.