Hundreds of passengers scheduled to fly to Manila yesterday faced increased delays of one day after Taiwan suspended air links with the Philippines.
Tourism operators, meanwhile, urged both sides to maintain the profitable Taipei-Manila route by connecting flights through other foreign carriers.
More than two hundred Manila-bound passengers with prior bookings on China Airlines' flights and over one hundred scheduled to fly on EVA Air flights were rebooked by the airlines and travel agencies to fly on Cathay Pacific and British Airways flights, airline representatives said.
Following Friday's announcement of the suspension of air links on the Taipei-Manila route travel agents in Taiwan have been working on alternative measures to carry passengers through to Manila.
Both China Airlines and EVA Air still have bookings to fly to Manila during October, but airlines said that the more than ten thousand passengers booked to fly between the two cities will be rescheduled to fly via Hong Kong.
The suspension will also cause CAL to lose NT$2 billion and EVA Air NT$1.2 billion to NT$1.3 billion in revenue, a local report said.
Local travel agents said passengers planning to go to Manila could take alternative flights via other cities in the Philippines on chartered aircraft, which are so far unaffected by the air pact.
"Far East Air Transport Corporation still provides three Taipei to Subic Bay flights a week, while U-Land Airlines flies three times weekly to each of Lawahg (
Wei added that there are buses and flights between Lawahg, Cebu and Manila, and transport is also available between Subic Bay and Manila.
Local travel agencies have called for the Taipei-Manila route to be maintained by other foreign carriers, fearing threats to both the Taiwanese and the Philippines tourism industries.
An estimated 200,000 Taiwanese travelers fly to the Philippines each year, of which 80 percent travel via Manila, while Taiwan has a tourism market worth NT$5 billion annually.
"Foreign carriers such as Malaysia Airlines and Northwest Airlines have expressed interest in applying for the fifth freedom with Taiwanese authorities to carry passengers to Taiwan via Manila," said Lee Chia-yin (李嘉寅) of the Taipei Association of Travel Agents (
The fifth freedom involves the carriage of passengers on flights from one country, that is not the airline's home base, to another country.
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