New cross-strait flight schedule released by CAA

The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) finalized the distribution of regular cross-strait flights yesterday, with close to half of the flights granted to the nation's two largest airlines.

While the agency reserved 15 flights per week for financially strapped Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT), it will let other airlines share these flights until FAT resumes operations.

Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said his agency was still reviewing FAT's application to resume business.

FAT has secured a district court's approval to restructure its finances and has scheduled a stakeholders meeting later this month.

"The company may not acquire the funding it needs to restructure its finances if it is denied the right to operate cross-strait flights, so we decided to reserve 15 flights for it," Lee said.

"But before FAT has functional and safe aircraft to provide cross-strait flights, each of the five other airlines will get three additional flights," Lee said. "When FAT has sufficient aircraft, the other five airlines will gradually hand back these flights to it."

Even if FAT resumes operations, it cannot apply to fly to a specific city in China, Lee said. It can only use the number of flights reserved for it and fly to cities that no other airline wants to service.

The CAA also completed the distribution of 135 weekly cross-strait flights. The number of flights was determined at the third-round of cross-strait talks in April.

China Airlines and EVA Air will provide 30 flights per week, including those from FAT's portion. UNI Air and Mandarin Airlines will each have 25 flights and TransAsia Airways will have 24.

One weekly flight from Taichung to Shengchun will be offered, with UNI and Mandarin taking turns offering the flight in three-month segments.

While cross-strait talks agreed that flights could be offered to 27 Chinese cities, the airlines are only interested in 19. Shanghai is the most popular destination, with 28 flights a week departing from either Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport or Taipei Songshan Airport.