Taiwanese airlines have decided to postpone the launch of several new cross-strait services after learning that flights would only be allowed to take off early in the morning, prompting the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to say it would negotiate with the Chinese authorities to resolve the matter.
Earlier this year, Taiwanese carriers applied for four new flights to Beijing and four to Shenzhen. The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) approved their applications, but the time slots awarded to the Taiwanese carriers were undesirable.
For example, one of the flights to Beijing was scheduled for takeoff at 11:25pm and to land at 2:30am. The other flight to Beijing would depart at 2:10am and land at 5:25am. A similar schedule applies to flights destined for Shenzhen.
The Taiwanese airlines decided to postpone launching services as very few people would want to book “red eye” flights.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said he had been informed that the reason why China appeared unable to resolve the time slot problem stemmed from Chinese authorities’ problems with its own airlines not toeing the line, as well as a recent scandal in which one Chinese airline illegally sold its time slot to another.
“These are their problems and they should not be used as excuses,” Mao said.
A source at the CAA said the Songshan-Hongqiao service was settled quickly only because higher-ranking Chinese authorities told the CAAC to reserve the time slots for Taiwanese carriers in advance.
In May, Taiwan and China agreed to increase the number of cross-strait flights from 270 a week to 370 a week. Under the agreement, each side could add 50 flights to its schedules, in addition to the 135 flights agreed on in previous negotiations.
Of the 50 new flights, 14 were assigned for the direct route between Taipei’s Songshan Airport and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport. While the other 36 flights could be on routes to other cities in China, the Chinese government said 20 must be reserved for Xiamen and Fuzhou as part of its plan to develop coastal areas in Fujian Province, also known as the Strait-West Special District. The rules apply to both Taiwanese and Chinese airlines.
CAA planning division director Betty Cheng (程嘉莉) said the CAA told Chinese representatives during the cross-strait flight negotiations that they would have to adjust the arrangements for 135 regular flights if carriers from both sides were forced to dispatch at least 20 flights to airports in Fujian.
The Chinese representatives did not object to the proposal, Cheng said, adding that the final draft of the cross-strait agreement did not state that no change could be made to the 135 regular flights.
The CAA on June 24 notified the CAAC about the changes it sought.
The CAAC did not reply until last week and it reiterated that 20 of the 50 new flights must be destined for Xiamen or Fuzhou and that alterations could not be made to the original 135 flights.
Cheng said the Taiwanese carriers already offer 30 flights to either Xiamen or Fuzhou, which meets the requirements in the agreement, while Chinese airlines only provide 28 flights to these two destinations.
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