Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director-General Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said yesterday that EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) will take turns providing one weekly flight from Taichung to Shanghai.
“The arrangement was made because of strong requests from local legislative representatives in Taichung,” Lee said, adding that each company would offer the service in two-month segments.
Lee also said that the airlines were reluctant to offer the service because they may not find enough customers for it. It would also affect the use of their aircraft, he said.
On Monday, the CAA finalized the distribution of 135 weekly cross-strait flights after the number of flights was determined at the third-round of cross-strait talks in April.
Under the arrangements, the nation’s two largest air carriers, CAL and EVA, will be allowed to provide 30 flights per week each.
The two smaller carriers, UNI Airways Corp (立榮航空) and Mandarin Airlines Ltd (華信航空), will each have 25 flights, while TransAsia Airways will have 24, CAA said in a statement. Mandarin is a unit of CAL, while UNI is under EVA.
The CAA also arranged for one weekly flight from Taichung to Shengchun, with UNI and Mandarin taking turns offering the service in three-month segments.
Lee said that the schedules for cross-strait regular flights would be adjusted every six months.
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