Taiwan and Russia reach agreement over direct flights

Taiwan and Russia have reached an agreement to launch regular direct flights between Moscow and Taipei, newspaper reports said yesterday.

China Airlines Co (華航), Taiwan's largest air carrier, struck a deal with Russia's Transaero airline in Moscow last week and both planned to begin once- or twice-weekly flights between Taipei and Moscow by April next year, a Chinese-language newspaper report quoted Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) as saying.

After nearly 10 years of negotiations, the pact will be signed before the year's end by the Moscow-Taipei Coordination Commission on Economic and Cultural Cooperation, Russia's unofficial mission to Taiwan, and its Taiwan counterpart, Lin said.

Initially each airline will offer two flights weekly, but that number could be reduced if demand was not high, China Airlines chairman Lee Yun-ling (李雲寧) said a day after his return from Moscow to complete the negotiations.

Another local newspaper quoted China Airlines President Philip Wei (魏幸雄) as saying the deal was struck after Taiwan dropped two requests.

The requests were that the two sides grant each other tax-free status and extend the air route from Moscow to other European cities.

The two partners will continue negotiating those points after the pact is signed, Wei said.

But Chairman Lee said that China Airlines and Transaero had not discussed the right to extend flights further from Moscow and Taipei.

Nor did they negotiate on exemption from income tax arising from the planned flights, the major reason for the repeated delay of the aviation pact, Lee said.

Taiwan and Russia signed a draft aviation pact in 1993.

Russia has refused to grant the Taiwanese airline tax-free status to avoid provoking China, an ally of Russia that considers Taiwan as part of its territory.

CAL launched its first direct charter flight to Moscow on Aug. 24 while Transaero staged its first charter flight to Taipei on Sept. 2.