Whether Chinese civilian aircraft will be allowed to be transported to Taiwan for repair and maintenance depends entirely on the Mainland Affairs Council, Civil Aeronautics Administration Dir-ector-General Chang Kuo-cheng (張國政) said yesterday.
Chang said that as far as he knows, the nation's civilian carriers, including China Airlines, EVA Airways and Far East Air Transport, have since last year voiced their eagerness to seek repair and maintenance of civilian aircraft from China.
Nevertheless, Chang said, according to the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), Chinese aircraft, regardless of type, are not allowed to land at any airport or place in the Taiwan area, which also includes Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu.
Therefore, Chang said, there is no chance for Chinese aircraft to come to Taiwan for repair and maintenance, unless there are expedient or contingency measures to allow the practice on a case-by-case basis.
Whether this aircraft maintenance notion can be put into practice depends entirely on the council, he said.
He added that it is up to the council whether the government will come up with another expedient measure -- such as allowing China-base businesspeople to return home for the Lunar New Year holidays via indirect chartered flights from China -- to allow Chinese aircraft access to Taiwan.
Chang said one of the options that the carriers have discussed is that Chinese aircraft be allowed to fly to Taiwan after making stopovers in Hong Kong or Macau, where pilots of the Taiwanese carriers would fly the aircraft to Taiwan for repair and maintenance work.
Chang made the remarks amid Internet reports that two Shanghai Airlines aircraft -- a Boeing 757 and a Boeing 767 -- are scheduled to arrive in May to undergo an overall maintenance job.
So far, EVA Airways and Far East Air have submitted applications for the business, according to an East.Net (China) report.
In related news, China Airlines has, since November 1999, acquired contracts from Air China to do engine overhaul and maintenance work for the carrier's Boeing 747 cargo planes.
A CAL spokesman said the company has completed overhaul and maintenance work on three engines of Air China Boeing 747 cargo planes as of yesterday.
The company obtained another contract last November for similar work on a fourth engine, the spokesman said.
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