Recently, several employees of Happiness Air Limited Company (referred to as Happiness Air) have reported that the company has been owing basic wages and hourly fees for a long period of time. In some cases, even the social insurance of some employees is lacking. The issue of unpaid wages involves various positions such as flight attendants and security personnel. According to the employees, the operational status of this airline, which is under the Xi’an municipal government, is not normal.
As reported by Red Star News, Mr. Liu, an employee of Happiness Air, stated that the company has currently owed him nearly 10 months of basic wages, over a year of social insurance, more than two years of provident fund, and pension insurance payments have not been made. “Apart from these, there are also heating allowances, high-temperature allowances, the total amounts owed are unknown.”
Mr. Liu mentioned that after being owed wages, he tried to communicate with the company, but the result of the communication was that the company claimed to have no money. When employees inquired further, the company would say they are processing advance wage payments, but there have been no updates thereafter.
Ms. Wang, another employee of Happiness Air, stated, “Since 2020, the company has been sporadically paying salaries, sometimes with a gap of a month, sometimes two months. Initially, both hourly fees and basic salaries were paid, but starting from 2021, there have been continuous delays in hourly fee payments.” Ms. Wang revealed that currently, salaries are being paid every few months or even every six months. The situation varies for each employee, with longer-serving employees experiencing longer delays in payment.
According to Ms. Wang, the operational status of the company seems abnormal to her. “Our benefits are particularly poor. Despite owing wages, the company provided everyone with new uniforms, opened a VIP lounge at the airport, and purchased two new VIP vehicles.” Ms. Wang believes that these actions by Happiness Air make employees feel uncomfortable as wages are not being paid, yet money is being spent on other things.
She also disclosed that Happiness Air currently has over 900 employees, and the flight attendant team is overstaffed. Under normal circumstances, one aircraft requires 30 personnel for operation, which is already sufficient. Over a hundred employees would be more than enough to operate the remaining few aircraft, yet the company continues to recruit.
According to Tianyancha, data from 2023 shows that Happiness Air had 1,053 employees.
In 2023, Li Hongliang, who previously served as the Party Committee Secretary and Discipline Inspection Secretary of Happiness Air, took the company to court in Xianyang Weicheng District Court for unreceived performance bonuses totaling 48,000 yuan for 2019 and a quarterly performance bonus of 60,000 yuan for the first quarter of 2020. After both parties appealed the initial verdict, the Xianyang Intermediate Court rejected their appeals, upholding the initial ruling, ordering Happiness Air to pay Li Hongliang 60,000 yuan for performance wages from January to March 2020 within ten days of the verdict taking effect.
Additionally, according to China News Weekly, Happiness Air filed a lawsuit against the Development and Reform Commission of Alxa League, Inner Mongolia this year. The staff of the Development and Reform Commission of Alxa League mentioned that it primarily involves some “expense issues.”
Moreover, publicly available information indicates that the legal representative of Happiness Air, Peng Shibing, has been subject to a restriction on high-end consumption, which means he cannot even travel in the first-class cabin of his own airline.
Established in 2008, Happiness Air is a regional airline in Mainland China jointly founded by the China Aviation Industry Corporation and China Eastern Airlines, with its headquarters originally located in Xi’an. It is currently based at Xi’an Xianyang International Airport.
In November 2018, China Eastern Airlines withdrew from operating Happiness Air, and a subsidiary of the Xi’an municipal government became the largest shareholder with a 65% stake while the China Aviation Industry Corporation retained a 24% equity.
In the past month, various listed Chinese airlines have released quarterly performance reports. In the third quarter of this year, the net profits of China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China, Spring Airlines, and Juneyao Airlines have all decreased. Among them, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines suffered non-recurring losses in net profits for the first three quarters of the year.