A proposal to allow Taiwan airlines to operate flights from Taiwan to China via the Japanese island prefecture of Okinawa is being assessed by the Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), a high-ranking MAC official said yesterday.
"The report evaluates all options possible in relation to direct flights across the Taiwan Strait. The possibility of stopover or flyby via Okinawa is, of course, one option among [others] considered," said council Vice Chairman Jonathan Liu (
Liu made the remarks in response to media queries about the council's position on Premier Yu Shyi-kun's recent comments on direct links.
When meeting with members of the Taiwan Chamber of Commerce in Okinawa on Tuesday, Yu said he hoped that the Japanese government would allow civilian Taiwanese airliners to stop at or fly by Okinawa on their way to and from China.
Okinawa is situated approximately 500km northeast of Taipei.
Direct cross-strait flights have been barred for decades.
Six Taiwanese airliners operated charter flights for Taiwanese businesspeople in China for the Lunar New Year holidays, but these flights had to make brief stopovers in either Hong Kong or Macau on their way to Taiwan.
More than 3 million Taiwanese people visited China via Hong Kong or Macau last year, according to council statistics.
"The council has included the recommendation [to have Taiwanese airlines making a stopover in Okinawa or flying through Okinawa airspace] as one of the possible routes for technical review for direct links," said Liu, without elaborating further on the issue.
"Final results as well as other details concerning the direct-links issue will be made available when the report is made public," Liu said, adding that the council has already completed the report and has forwarded it to the Executive Yuan to undergo procedural work.
While giving no specific date as to when the report would be made public, Liu said that "the report will be revealed to the public as soon as the council and relevant agencies complete required routine procedures."
Meanwhile, Lee Lung-wen (李龍文), chief of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications' Aviation Affairs Department, denied Chinese-language media reports that said the government had been negotiating with Japan on terms for operating cross-strait flights via Okinawa.
He said there had no discussion between the ministry and the Japanese government on the issue of making stopovers in Okinawa or flying through Okinawa airspace en route to China.
Meanwhile Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (
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