A new Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation accord will be signed in the near future in accordance with the formula set forth in the Taiwan-Macau agreement, airline sources said yesterday.
According to the sources, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has agreed to authorize the Civil Aeronautical Administration (CAA) under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications to renew the Taiwan-Hong Kong air accord in line with the "Taiwan-Macau formula."
This was why Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Lin-san (
The existing five-year Taiwan-Hong Kong air pact originally expired on June 12, 2001. At that time, the MAC insisted on official participation in negotiations for a renewal of the pact. Hong Kong authorities, however, wanted to follow the previous formula of "having [only] carriers which have operated flights between the two sides negotiate and sign the new pact."
The Cabinet-level MAC, which charts Taiwan's policy toward China, has been handling exchanges with Hong Kong and Macau since the two former colonies reverted to mainland Chinese rule in mid-1997 and 1999, respectively.
Negotiations for the renewal of the pact have since been deadlocked. In order to maintain normal Taiwan-Hong Kong flight services, the original air accord was twice extended, with the second extension ending at the end of June this year.
As Hong Kong has been a major transit stop between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait -- in the absence of direct cross-strait transportation services -- the pressure for negotiating a new aviation pact to meet the ever-growing market demand has continued to rise.
In the end, airline sources said, both sides agreed to make some compromises. While the MAC decided to authorize the CAA to handle the issue, Hong Kong gave the green light to the CAA-proposed Taiwan-Macau formula.
The Taiwan-Macau air pact was signed by the Taipei Airlines Association (台北運輸商業公會) and Air Macau on behalf of their respective governments, and relevant CAA officials had been allowed to take part in the negotiations as advisers to the airline association.
In other words, the signatories to the future Taiwan-Hong Kong aviation accord will be the Taipei Airlines Association and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair. The existing Taiwan-Hong Kong accord was inked by Taiwan's China Airlines Co (華航) and EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) as well as the two Hong Kong carriers.
Under the existing accord, Taiwan and Hong Kong are allowed to operate 121 weekly flights each. China Airlines, Taiwan's largest air carrier, now operates 105 flights per week and the nation's No. 2 carrier can only operate 16 weekly flights. Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific operates 100 Taiwan-Hong Kong flights and Dragon Airlines is entitled to operate 21 flights per week.
Both EVA and Dragon Airlines have long desired to increase their flight quotas to meet market demand. Airline sources said EVA may be allowed to increase its weekly number of flights to 49 under the new accord while China Airlines will only gain a slight increase in its quota.
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