HK Express (UO, Hong Kong International) has confirmed the immediate removal of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Andrew Cowen in the wake of an ongoing regulatory investigation into the budget carrier's cancellation of eighteen flights this week.

In a statement, the HNA Group unit said the Vice President of sister carrier Hong Kong Airlines (HX, Hong Kong International), Zhong Guosong, had been appointed as Executive Chairman & Acting CEO in the wake of Cowen's departure. It did not comment on a Reuters report that stated that two other directors had also left the airline including Human resources director, Christopher Thomas, who was replaced by another Hong Kong Airlines executive, Stanley Yau, on Wednesday, October 4.

"His first area of focus is working on understanding what has transpired in the airline recently, in order to implement any necessary improvements to ensure HK Express continues to serve the Hong Kong public in its unique role as the sole low-cost carrier," it said.

HK Express's corporate operations have come under scrutiny from Hong Kong's Air Transport Licensing Authority (ATLA) and Civil Aviation Department (CAD) for its decision to cancel, at short notice, eighteen return flights from Hong Kong to each of Osaka Kansai and Nagoya Chubu in Japan and Seoul Incheon in South Korea over the period October 1 to 8, affecting over 2,000 travellers.

In a follow-up statement issued on Wednesday, October 4, a CAD spokesman confirmed HK Express's woes related to the shortage of safety trainers.

As part of its Air Operator's Certificate (AOC) conditions, CAD requires crew members of locally-registered airlines to complete safety training at least once every 13 months. In the past, CAD said HK Express had requested that its staff complete the training once every 12 months, as is stated in its operations manual.

However, in August this year, HK Express informed the regulator that its entire complement of safety trainers would resign from the airline shortly. They had been due to undergo a scheduled assessment by CAD at the time of their departure. As such, CAD says it then requested the airline to provide it with a detailed plan covering causes and solution to the impending manpower shortage.

CAD said that following another inquiry in early September, HK Express management claimed that a short-term contingency plan had been worked out, which included employing two resigned trainers to return to provide training temporarily, employing two additional trainers from a third party on a contract basis, and amending the crew's annual training period in its operations manual from 12 months to 13 months as required by the legislation.

HK Express reportedly told CAD in mid-September that the vacant safety training posts had been filled with recruits undergoing the requisite training. Once completed, it would then file an application for assessment. It subsequently asked to amend its operations manual to allow for a 13-month scrutinization period as required by legislation. CAD dually agreed.

"HKE guaranteed in writing at that time that the flight operations would not be affected," the CAD spokesman said. "Based on the above considerations, the CAD has reasonable grounds for believing that the flight safety and flight operations of HKE would not be affected."

CAD added that despite these assurances from HK Express, the LCC informed it on September 28 that it would affect mass-cancellations from October 1 onwards. CAD then directed Cowan and airline management to personally intervene in the situation to ensure the least amount of disruption to the traveling public. A full report clarifying the situation was also ordered by the end of this week.

"The CAD would like to reiterate that it was extremely undesirable for HKE not to proactively and accurately notify the department of a possible extensive cancellation of flights during a peak season for travel and not to inform the public immediately after it had been decided to cancel flights," the spokesman said. "The CAD understands the public's concern over the HKE incident and will take appropriate follow-up actions upon receiving and studying the report."