Airport closure in Japan triggers Taiwanese passengers’ furious outbursts    Flight attendant sighs: “Mainlanders are nicer”

▲Netizens capture the behavior of Taiwanese passengers at a Japanese airport. (Photo/Screen capture from PTT)

Reporters Chen Rui-zhong and Chen Zi-yin / Comprehensive report

In recent days, Japan has suffered greatly from heavy snow, not only affecting local residents but also stranding tourists and business travelers due to airport closures. Yet many online discussions—some going viral on Facebook—focus on the intense, even abusive reactions of Taiwanese passengers toward ground staff.

A netizen posted on BBS PTT, statingthat at Tokyo’s Narita Airport, nearly a hundred Taiwanese passengers surrounded an airline counter. Several burly men who appeared to be tour guides were shouting at a female ground staff member. Airport security approached multiple times, while foreign tourists looked on. “Successfully promoting Taiwan’s visibility, achieving some great public diplomacy.”

The netizen also wrote that even after the airline finally arranged extra flights, some passengers continued to rant,shouting things like “I need to go back right now,” “Just cancel someone else’s ticket and give it to me,” or “Tell the foreign ministry to send a charter plane immediately.”Meanwhile, Western and other foreign passengers waited calmly for normal operations to resume.

According to a friend in the aviation industry, who spoke privately, passengers’ impatience and anger while waiting for delayed or canceled flights is completely understandable. But what’s puzzling is:“Faced with such severe weather conditions, why would passengers insist on flying despite risking their lives?”“Why blame airlines, ground staff, and cabin crews for something as uncontrollable as the weather?””

▲Narita Airport experiences major flight disruptions due to heavy snow; passengers use air mattresses as makeshift partitions to sleep. (Photo/Courtesy of reporter You...)

After speaking with several frontline aviation workers, including flight attendants and ground staff, flight attendant Ms. M said that during crew training, there’s always“a lesson from past tragedies”—a powerful educational component using videos and data to discuss previous fatal crashes.

This process helps crew members deeply reflect on and understand that “just one small mistake can lead to massive safety issues.” When real-life cases are presented, many trainees can’t help but get emotional or even cry.

Therefore, every airline employee has a much deeper understanding of flight safety than the general public, and also a stronger commitment to staying on duty—“It’s not that we don’t want to fly, but for safety reasons, we really can’t.”.

When airlines face weather-related airport closures, they’re equally eager to get passengers to their destinations as quickly as possible; otherwise, a series of flights will be delayed. Airlines often mobilize all available local resources to assist stranded passengers, striving to keep them as comfortable and reassured as possible.

They also noted that crew members are human too—especially after long-haul flights lasting over ten hours, they’re often more eager to go home than passengers. But the safety of hundreds of lives on board leaves no room for error, nor should anyone try to fight nature or challenge extreme weather.

▲Passengers wait at Narita Airport for it to reopen or for standby seats, with no choice but to stay put. (Photo/Courtesy of reporter You...)

Mr. G, a pilot, explained that in snowy conditions, planes must be de-iced with anti-icing fluid—and must take off within a certain time window after de-icing. When snowfall is too heavy and exceeds the effectiveness of the fluid, airlines won’t risk flying.

Beyond the aircraft itself, airport runways also need full de-icing. All arriving and departing flights must queue and follow instructions, inevitably causing delays. Even after de-icing, runways remain slippery, visibility drops in the snowy conditions, so airports absolutely won’t compromise passenger safety by allowing takeoffs or landings in bad weather. In poor conditions, pilots must also exercise extra caution.

Additionally, since both piloting and in-flight service require high levels of concentration, regulations from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the “Aircraft Flight Operations Management Rules,” and othersset strict limits on flight crew working hours to prevent fatigue, reduced focus, or physical exhaustion—all of which could severely impact flight safety..

Flight attendant Ms. L also noted that while the general public may have a vague understanding of "crew flight overruns," they often don’t realize that such overruns require crew substitutions, which can then lead to further delays or cancellations. If passengers fail to approach the situation rationally and understand the actual circumstances, they often end up misunderstanding the airline.

▲ To provide travelers with a more comfortable waiting environment, many airports in Taiwan have set up distinctive waiting areas. (Photo / Official website of Kaohsiung International Airport Terminal)

Facing flight cancellations due to weather conditions, Ms. M said that from the frontline perspective, she actually hopes to see passengers......empathy and sound judgment.Empathy and sound judgment usually only emerge when one is in a calm state of mind. Therefore, she hopes passengers can first stay calm and trust that the airline will handle the situation properly. This way, passengers can better cope with what follows and also view the flight crew with empathy.

"Irrational behavior" is often the most common issue among Taiwanese people when encountering flight disruptions.

Aside from the incident at Tokyo Airport, according to Ms. K, who has since left the aviation industry, some Taiwanese believe that passengers from less culturally developed second-tier cities on the mainland actually behave quite courteously during flights. Compared to them, mainland travelers are less likely to nitpick or lodge complaints like "Do you look down on me?" or "What’s your attitude?" — often a simple "It’s okay" makes everything blow over.

One of the most obvious examples is how crew members of other nationalities often remind each other during briefing meetings:"Taiwanese passengers tend to exert collective pressure under the guise of protecting their rights, but in reality, they make rude and unreasonable demands."

Similarly, crew member Mr. K also said that although mainlanders can be loud, they’re not as prone as some Taiwanese passengers to causing a scene at the airport or insisting on going back to Taiwan to report to the media — they’re relatively simpler and more endearing.

▲ Outspoken mainland travelers often show higher compliance on flights compared to Taiwanese passengers. (Photo / Reporter Chen Mingren)

Another respondent, Ms. H, also mentioned that although mainland customers can sometimes be a bit scatterbrained, they’re actually quite easy to communicate with. For example, when there are limited meal options, mainlanders usually just say "It’s okay!" to accept the crew’s apology, whereas many Taiwanese insist on having another meal option that’s no longer available.

Additionally, Ms. H pointed out that many Taiwanese tour guides, in an effort to fulfill their duties and fearing passengers might think they didn’t try hard enough, often engage in unnecessary arguments, sometimes even leading to misunderstandings. Some passengers even expect the airline to arrange post-flight transportation back to Taiwan when delays are weather-related — something that’s beyond the airline’s scope of responsibility.

Although airplane passengers come in all kinds, flight crews undergo extensive training and mental preparation to handle various pressures and uphold their professional standards.

Ms. M stated that she and her colleagues believe that......aside from hoping passengers can empathize with flight attendants, they themselves also try to empathize with passengers, so they can understand why passengers may feel nervous, impatient, or even angry.

With mutual consideration, not only can passengers better understand situations like "airport closures due to bad weather" or "crew overruns," but crew members can also better handle passenger issues, stick to their flight safety duties, and truly embody professionalism — making the flight experience more pleasant for everyone.

%The working hours of flight attendants are strictly regulated by clear rules. (Japan, etc.)