Officials from Taiwan and Japan approved a new air pact yesterday authorizing a robust increase in cargo and passenger transport capacities between the two countries.
The pact -- endorsed by the Association of East Asian Relations (AEAR) and the Japan Interchange Association (JIA) -- guarantees that the number of passenger seats offered by airline carriers from the two countries will be increased by some 200,000 a year and the restrictions on bilateral charter flights will be canceled as well, officials from the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said.
CAA officials attributed the increases mainly to the imminent arrival of new A330-300 and A330-200 aircraft to China Airlines' and EVA Airways' fleet plying the Taiwan-Japan route.
Under the new agreement, which took immediate effect, CAL and EVA will have a combined increase of 1,858 passenger seats aboard their flights to and from Japan per week, representing nearly 200,000 seats per year.
Under the new accord, the number of all-cargo flights will be doubled from the current level.
Also under the accord, restrictions on the number of charter flights between the two countries were removed.
The number had been fixed at 800 per year before 2002, but the two sides exchanged 1,000 charter flights last year.
Sendai, a city in northeastern Japan popular with tourists, and Hiroshima in the Kansai area were added in April to the existing list of Japanese cities operating weekly flights to and from Taiwan.
With the inclusion of Sendai and Hiroshima, the number of Japanese cities operating regular weekly flights to and from Taiwan has increased to seven from the previous five -- Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Sapporo.
AEAR and JIA are quasi-official agencies authorized by the Taiwanese and Japanese governments, respectively, to handle exchanges in the absence of formal diplomatic relations between the two countries.
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