China yesterday said it will rush approval of applications by Taiwan-based airlines to fly over Chinese airspace, potentially moving the sides closer to ending a 55-year break in direct air links.
There was no response from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) to the announcement as of press time last night.
"It will take some time [to process the applications] but related work will be completed very soon," civil aviation official Pu Zhaozhou (浦照洲) was quoted as saying in an interview with China's official China Daily daily.
However, Pu said talks were needed on specific routes requested by Taiwanese airlines, which in some cases differ from those now in use.
Pu's comments follow an Aug. 3 announcement by Taiwan that it would allow its airlines to overfly China despite Taipei's ban on direct flights.
Reached at his office yesterday, Pu said he had no further comments on the issue.
Taiwanese airlines now avoid Chinese air space on flights to Europe, South Asia and the Middle East by passing either north over Russia or south over Southeast Asia.
Both China Airlines and EVA Airways have argued that rising fuel costs were adding to the extra expense of the roundabout routes. Flying directly across the Taiwan Strait and over China offers a much more direct route to Europe, where CAL services eight destinations and EVA six.
EVA has estimated it could save at least NT$150 million (US$4.7 million) per year on fuel by flying over China.
Chinese officials also claim flying over China could cut flying time from Taiwan to Europe by up to two hours.
Overflying China would mark a further step toward opening up direct links between the sides. China has on at least two occasions in 2002 and 2003 opened its airspace to Taiwanese airlines, citing air safety concerns related to US military action in Iraq.
Pu, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's office of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs, was quoted as saying China's "policy of welcoming Taiwanese airlines to fly over mainland air space remains unchanged."
In recent years, the sides have initiated charter flights to carry Taiwanese businesspeople and their families in China home for Lunar New Year celebrations.
Premier Frank Hsieh (
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,