Airline News
No deal on cross-straits liberalization
October 23rd 2015
Beijing and Taipei held ministerial talks in Guangzhou last week on transport, trade and other issues, but reached no consensus on letting Mainland passengers transfer in Taiwan en route to and from foreign destinations, particularly the lucrative North American market. Read More »
Andrew Hsia, minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council, told reporters Taipei hoped Beijing would allow such transfers by year-end. "They said they were willing to consider it in a pragmatic manner," he said, adding such transfers were an international practice and implementation should not be a problem.
The main sticking point is that Beijing wants Taipei, in exchange for assenting to its request, to allow Mainland-registered aircraft to fly directly to and from the island through the Taiwan Strait instead of having to use circuitous routes. Until now, Taipei has been refusing this and said they were separate matters.
Former China Airlines (CAL) chairman, Huang-Hsiang Sun, told Orient Aviation in February he was confident a major breakthrough on this issue was on the horizon. “The official dialogue has begun. I am quite optimistic. I think both sides will find a solution and make the transfer point in Taiwan feasible. CAL is ready,” Sun said.
Statistics published by the U.S. Department of Commerce in 2014 reported that of the 1.8 million Mainland tourists who visit the U.S. annually, 60% transited through third-party airports such as Hong Kong, Seoul and Tokyo. If the restriction was lifted, and considering the already significant cross-strait networks in place, Taiwanese carriers could challenge the growing Mainland – or U.S. – trans-Pacific “domination”, in addition to undermining Japan and South Korea as the traditional transfer hubs.
Meanwhile, it would appear that CAL rival EVA Airways is also ready for expansion and increased transfer passenger flows, after Boeing last week announced EVA’s intent to purchase up to 24 B787-10s and two additional B777-300ERs, valued at more than $8 billion at current list prices. The -10 has a range of 12,964kms (8,055 miles) and offers a 25% fuel reduction compared with current aircraft of similar size. To date, Boeing has received 146 orders for the -10, including 30 each from Air Lease Corporation, Singapore Airlines and Etihad Airways, 25 from United Airlines, 12 from British Airways, ten from GE Capital Aviation Services, six from Air France-KLM and three from All Nippon Airways. The longest member of the B787 family is currently being designed at Boeing’s Everett facility, with final assembly scheduled to begin in 2017 in North Charleston and first delivery slated for 2018.
