With the Mid-Autumn Festival approaching, Beijing and Taipei have again traded accusations over cross-Strait air travel, with China calling on Taiwan to ease restrictions on charter and direct flights.
On Sept. 23, China’s State Council Taiwan Affairs Office accused Taiwan of imposing overly stringent conditions on applications for cross-Strait charter flights. Spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said Taiwan’s rules left travelers and airlines with services that were effectively “out of reach.”
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council rejected that characterization, saying airlines can apply under existing procedures and that, according to Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, no applications had been filed for Mid-Autumn Festival charter flights, the Central News Agency (CNA) reported.
Beijing calls for restoration of direct flights
At a Sept. 23 press conference, Zhu said cross-Strait routes and flight frequencies have yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
According to the Taiwan Affairs Office, Chinese airlines currently operate more than 300 passenger flights each week from 14 mainland cities serving 15 destinations. Before 2020, 61 mainland destinations were served by as many as 890 weekly flights.
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Zhu said 4.221 million passengers traveled on direct cross-Strait flights between January and August, up 12.9 percent from the same period last year. She said the figures showed strong demand for air travel between Taiwan and mainland China.
She also said mainland Chinese airlines had largely used their allocated capacity at the 15 restored destinations and urged Taiwan to remove what Beijing considers unreasonable restrictions and allow airlines to schedule flights according to market demand.
Taiwan has disputed Beijing’s claim that the lack of additional services is primarily the result of political restrictions.
Taiwan says there were ‘zero applications’
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council said on Sept. 23 that, after consulting the Civil Aeronautics Administration, it found that no airlines had applied to operate passenger charter flights during the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival period, according to CNA.
Taiwan currently permits charter-flight applications to 13 mainland destinations where authorities have determined there is travel demand but conditions for restoring regular scheduled service have not yet been met.
The destinations are Shenyang, Wuxi, Haikou, Changsha, Xi’an, Jinan, Hefei, Nanchang, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Dalian, Guilin and Xuzhou, according to Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration.
Under existing rules, airlines may apply to operate passenger charter flights to those destinations during designated holiday periods. For the Qingming, Dragon Boat and Mid-Autumn festivals, applications may cover the seven days before and after the holiday. Airlines may also seek authorization for flights involving emergency medical treatment, humanitarian needs or other specific circumstances by submitting supporting documents, according to the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
Earlier Xi’an charter request rejected over timing
The dispute follows an earlier application by China Eastern Airlines to operate an Aug. 21 round-trip charter flight between Xi’an and Taoyuan.
Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration said the proposed date fell outside the period permitted for holiday charter flights and asked the airline to clarify or adjust the requested date, CNA reported in August.
For this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, the permitted charter-flight period runs from Sept. 18 through Oct. 2, according to Taiwan aviation authorities.
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