Chinese airlines requests to offer additional flights for the Lunar New Year holiday period have yet to be approved, even though some airlines began selling tickets for such flights last week, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
Taiwan and China have yet to discuss issues related to the use of four aviation routes China began using along its southeast coast on Jan. 4 — the northbound M503 route and east-west extension routes W121, W122 and W123, the agency said.
Chinese airlines have twice been informed that they should not plan to use any of the routes due to potential safety risks, but some are doing so despite repeated warnings, the agency said.
Requests for additional holiday flights filed by these carriers will not be approved for now, the agency said.
CAA data showed that Cathay Dragon, Hong Kong Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Xiamen Air have been using the four routes.
At a National Security Council meeting earlier this month, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) called for immediate bilateral negotiations over technical issues related to the use of the four routes.
The CAA earlier said that extra holiday flights would not be affected by the dispute over the four routes.
China Eastern Airlines applied for 106 additional flights during the holiday and Xiamen Air applied for 70, accounting for more than one-third of the Chinese requests, a CAA source said on condition of anonymity.
As some of the airlines are already selling tickets for additional fights, an estimated 50,000 passengers could be affected by whatever decision the CAA makes.
Additional Lunar New Year holiday flights are scheduled to operate between Feb. 2 and March 2.
China Eastern has applied to offer the flights from Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuxi and Hefei, while Xiamen Air is asking for flights from Hangzhou, Fuzhou and Xiamen.
Some industry experts last week suggested that the government reduce or suspend cross-strait flights as a bargaining chip for talks with China over its four new aviation routes, but others opposed the idea, saying that it would only hurt Taiwanese airlines and passengers.
Revenue from cross-strait flights account for one-third of Taiwanese carriers’ revenue, but only a small portion of Chinese carriers’ revenue, they said.
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