Taiwan Today

The Civil Aeronautics Administration revealed June 2 a proposal regarding the distribution of flight routes across the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. For the time being, five domestic airlines will divide amongst themselves 19 different points of entry into the mainland, according to the proposal. The new flight routes are scheduled to take effect starting next month. The mainland restricts the number of flights it allows into Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing, and Taiwanese carriers have already reached their quota for these destinations. Lee Long-wen, director general of CAA, pointed out that according to the agreements reached at the end of the Chiang-Chen talks, regular direct flights originating from Taiwan can only take off from airports in Taoyuan and Kaohsiung. Thus in the future Songshan and Taichung airports will follow a model of “regular chartered flights.” Flights originating from these two destinations will be allowed to carry air cargo freight, something which will help reduce costs for airlines. Now that there are more direct flights, Lee added, airlines should “respond positively” to consumer demands for lower ticket prices. Under the new rules, 135 passenger flights per week will be allowed, which will be divided as follows: China Airlines and Eva Air will each receive 30 flights; Mandarin Airlines and Uni Air will each receive 25 flights; TransAsia Airway will receive 24 flights; and the one remaining flight will be shared between Mandarin Airlines and Uni Air. China Airlines and Eva Air will share equally 14 weekly cargo flights between themselves. The three most popular destinations for Taiwanese airlines are Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Beijing. These cities allow a maximum of 28, 10, and 10 flights per week for Taiwanese airlines, and the limits for all three cities have already been reached. Other cities are less popular. Guangzhou, Chengdu and Kunming each allows 14 flights per week from Taiwan; but currently there are only eight scheduled flights per week to Guangzhou and Chengdu, and two to Kunming. Of the total 27 permitted points of entry on the mainland, Taiwanese airlines have expressed an interest in only 19 of them.