EVA reroutes one of its cargo jets

EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), the nation's second-largest carrier, said yesterday it has rerouted one cargo jet to fly south of Saudi Arabia after the war in Iraq broke out, spokeswoman Katherine Ke (柯文玲) said.

"One of our cargo planes, BR671, which departed 11:30am Taipei time from Sharjah of the UAE has rerouted through Egypt and Mediterranean to arrive at Brussels in Belgium, given the security concerns," Ke said.

Another cargo flight, BR678 from London to Dubai and three other passenger flights to London, Vienna and Amsterdam still maintained their routes unchanged yesterday, she added.

EVA currently runs 10 passenger flights and 12 cargo routes per week that overfly the Middle East. Ke said the exact number of flights to be rerouted in the coming days depends on the area the war will involve.

"But, beginning today, all of our Europe-bound flights will carry 30 minutes worth of additional fuel if they need to be diverted," Ke said.

China Airlines Co (華航), the nation's largest carrier, said there was no impact on either its cargo or passenger flights as of yesterday, spokesperson Charles Chen (陳玉治) said.

The carrier operates passenger flights to Frankfurt, Rome and Amsterdam and a cargo route to Luxembourg.

"The Frankfurt-bound route will not be affected by the war because it flies over Japan and Siberia," Chen said. "But the other three routes -- which either have a stop over at Abu Dhabi or overfly the Middle East -- may be affected by the war."

If the conflict continues but is only restricted to Iraq, with Abu Dhabi airport remaining open to commercial airliners, China Airlines said it may reroute its Taipei-Amsterdam and Taipei-Rome flights further south to fly over Oman and Saudi Arabia.

Since the change of these flight routes will add 10 to 20 minutes to flight time, China Airlines will load 30 minutes worth of extra fuel for all of its Europe-bound flights, Chen said.

Operations of local shipping companies, such as Evergreen Marine Corp (長榮海運), Yangming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) and Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運), were normal yesterday as companies said the initial impact of the US-led invasion of Iraq was minimal.

"One of our ships is currently loading at Dubai Port and is expected to begin its return trip to Taiwan tomorrow," said Tsai Ming-shu (蔡明旭), vice president of Yangming. "There will be no impact on our operations if the war is restricted to Iraq."

Yangming operates one route in the Middle East. The shipper is considering buying extra war-risk insurance for cargo, Tsai said.

Wan Hai said one of its ships left Dubai Port on Monday and none of its other ships is scheduled to stop at any ports in the Middle East until next week.

"We will continue our operations as usual," Wan Hai spokesman Tsai Neng-kun (蔡能琨) said.