The telephone call between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Czech president-elect Petr Pavel on Monday last week was the first time a Taiwanese head of state has spoken directly with the leader of a European country. Following on from mutual visits between the speakers of the two countries’ parliaments and the mayors of their capital cities, the call shows that the friendship between Taiwan and the Czech Republic has grown closer.
However, a step that has yet to be taken is the establishment of direct flights between the countries.
While Taiwan and the Czech Republic signed an air services agreement in October 2007, up until now there have been no flights between them, although China Airlines has a code-sharing arrangement with fellow SkyTeam airline alliance member Czech Airlines.
Czech Representative to Taiwan David Steinke said that up to 250,000 Taiwanese tourists traveled to the Czech Republic each year before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As there are no direct flights between the countries, travelers must first fly to Vienna, a destination of China Airlines and EVA Airways, and then travel by bus or train, or take a connecting flight via Dubai, Istanbul, Amsterdam or Frankfurt.
In August 2021, the Czech government donated 30,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan, which was delivered by Turkish Airlines from Vaclav Havel Airport Prague to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport via Istanbul. In July last year, when Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) led a Taiwanese delegation to Prague, they also arrived on a Turkish Airlines transfer flight, whereas when Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil led a 90-member delegation to Taiwan at the end of August, they flew direct to Taipei on a China Airlines charter flight.
After returning to Taiwan, You asked the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to speed up preparations for direct flights, and Vystrcil met China Airlines chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) during his visit to Taiwan.
These moves show that both sides agree on the need to establish direct flights. The main problem is that China Airlines has been too cautious in its business evaluation. As early as five years ago, it considered that after adding Prague to its destination list, Prague could be paired with Vienna for travelers to land at one and leave from the other, so that Taiwanese tour groups would not have to go all the way back. China Airlines also planned for flights to go via Bangkok, which would be good for attracting passengers from Japan or Southeast Asia. Unfortunately, no further action has been taken.
In contrast, China Airlines’ competitors have been laying the groundwork for their own flights. Before the outbreak pandemic, four direct air routes between Prague and China were carrying 12 flights per week.
Even Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways was looking to get a piece of the action.
In February 2020, it obtained approval to operate a route between Hanoi and Prague, with the first flight scheduled for the end of April that year. Its local agents in Taiwan were promoting the service by offering competitive prices to Taiwanese travel agencies and encouraging them to offer packages with transfer flights between Hanoi and Prague. Were it not for COVID-19, Bamboo Airways might well have snatched up a lot of Taiwanese passengers from its competitors.
Each time relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic warm up, China threatens to retaliate, and the recent phone call between Tsai and Pavel has been no exception. In addition, Czech Chamber of Deputies Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova plans to visit Taiwan next month. China is sure to respond with more bullying, such as possibly freezing talks on a fifth direct flight route to Prague and replacing it with another European country, such as Croatia, or further restricting visits to the Czech Republic by Chinese tourists.
If Beijing boycotts tourism to the Czech Republic, it would create more favorable conditions for direct flights between Prague and Taipei and encourage Taiwanese travelers to visit the country. If so, China Airlines should seize the opportunity to speed up the establishment of direct flights between Taipei and Prague.
Chen Yung-chang is a company manager.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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