Taiwan yesterday called on China to help Taiwanese airlines with their applications to the Chinese government for the right to operate charter flights between Taiwan and Shanghai during the Lunar New Year holiday.
"We hope that the Chinese side will help our airlines with their applications to run charter flights during the Chinese New Year holidays. As long as both sides of the Taiwan Strait approve such applications, the plan can be realized without hindrance," said Vice Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) in a weekly routine news conference.
Chen did not specify the type of assistance he was calling for, but the remark was widely interpreted as a request for approvals of applications from Taiwanese carriers to be issued as quickly as possible and without complications.
The Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) says some 3,000 Taiwanese businessmen wish to book seats on such flights.
Later yesterday afternoon, Pu Zhaozhou (浦照洲), director of the Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Office under the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said that as of yesterday, all six Taiwan airlines had "requested information about application procedures." He said that some of them had already lodged applications, but declined to identify them or say how many.
However, he added that "some of them did not submit all the necessary documentation."
The six carriers are China Airlines, EVA Airways, Mandarin Airlines, Far Eastern Air Transport, TransAsia Airways and UNI Air.
But Pu said a deadline for the release of approval or rejections of applications had not been fixed.
According to unofficial guidelines released by China, approvals for charter flights will be announced no later than 15 days before the first planned flight, proposed for Jan 11.
Pu said yesterday that accepting such applications doesn't mean that China withdraws from its initial demand for negotiations to be held as soon as possible between two delegations representing all the private carriers from the two sides.
He said that these negotiations were between individual airlines from the two sides, plus the CAAC.
Chen told reporters such negotiations are defined as business-related issues, which have nothing to do with the issue of sovereignty. This means that such air carriers are free to talk with their Chinese counterparts about Lunar New Year chartered flights across the Strait.
So far, none of the six carriers has filed the requisite application with the Taiwan government. But the Taiwan side has requested that such applications be filed up to 10 days before the planned service commences.
Pu's statement that all six Taiwanese carriers had enquired about application procedures was welcomed by Taiwanese businessmen. Yeh Huei-te (葉惠德), the Chairman of Shanghai-based Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce, said yesterday that he hoped China could approve such applications as soon as possible to allow those interested to benefit from the service in time.
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