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EVA airlines says it will boost shipping capacity with China

EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and China's Shanghai Airlines (上海航空) boosted their Shanghai-Macau-Taipei cargo service yesterday to accommodate growing trade between Taiwan and China.

"Starting today, Shanghai Airlines will use a leased Boeing 747-200 cargo jet to fly the Shanghai-Macau route. In the past, Shanghai Airlines used passenger jets to carry cargo between Shanghai and Macau," EVA said in a statement.

"This will raise the cargo capacity on the Shanghai-Macau-Taipei route from the current 100 ton to 1,600 ton per month," the statement said.

EVA and Shanghai Airlines launched the Shanghai-Macau-Taipei cargo service in 1998 to circumvent Taipei's ban on direct flight between Taiwan and China.

Although Hong Kong and Macau returned to Chinese rule in 1997 and 1999 respectively, Taiwan has maintained air links with them.

The airline said the Shanghai-Macau-Taipei service has great potential because most of the shipments are bound for the US and can reach the US west coast within 24 hours.

The company operates 28 weekly passenger flights and three cargo flights between Taipei and Macau. Shanghai Airlines flies 21 passenger flights and three cargo flights to Macau.

Taiwan allowed indirect trade with China in 1998, but still bans air and cargo links with China, forcing cross-strait trade to go through a third country, usually Hong Kong.

Since then, Taiwan businessmen have poured some US$6 billion into investments in China. In the first five months of this year, Taiwan-China indirect trade totaled US$17.3 billion, up 25.7 percent year-on-year.
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