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🇹🇼 Taiwan /Economy & Trade

Taiwan: New Cross-Strait Flights Lack 'Return Passengers,' Says Official

From Liberty Times · (11h ago) Chinese

Translated from Chinese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

TLDR

  • Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) stated that new cross-strait flight routes are primarily for specific tourist destinations and lack 'return passengers' from mainland China.
  • MAC spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh clarified that these are charter flights, and the return leg does not necessarily include travelers from the cities where the flights originate.
  • The MAC believes market mechanisms should determine the viability of these routes, with airlines assessing profitability.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has responded to China's call for the full resumption of cross-strait passenger flights, asserting that the proposed new routes primarily serve as charter flights to specific tourist destinations and lack a reciprocal flow of travelers from mainland China. MAC spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh emphasized that the crucial factor for long-term viability is the presence of Chinese tourists traveling to Taiwan, a component he believes is currently missing from these proposed routes.

This is a charter flight to a specific tourist destination, and there will be no Xinjiang people, Lanzhou people, or Harbin people coming to Taiwan on the return trip.

— Liang Wen-chiehExplaining the nature of the proposed cross-strait flights.

Liang clarified that while flights might carry Taiwanese tourists to cities like Urumqi, Lanzhou, or Harbin, the return journey does not guarantee the same passengers or indeed any passengers from those mainland cities. This one-way dynamic, he argued, makes the routes unsustainable for airlines unless there is a genuine demand from Chinese citizens to visit Taiwan. The MAC's stance contrasts with the views of some business groups in Taiwan, such as the General Chamber of Commerce, which have questioned the MAC's assessment, suggesting that all flights inherently have a return load factor.

If airlines feel there is a possibility of profit, then they will apply, and we will evaluate it.

— Liang Wen-chiehStating the MAC's approach to evaluating new flight route applications.

The MAC spokesperson further addressed China's claim of an 80% passenger load factor on existing cross-strait flights, stating that Taiwan's figures are closer to 60-65%. While acknowledging that this still allows for potential increases in flights, Liang stressed that the decision rests with the airlines themselves. He noted that airlines currently find routes to Europe, the US, and Japan/Korea more profitable due to higher ticket prices. Therefore, the MAC will let market forces dictate whether airlines see potential profit in expanding services to these specific mainland Chinese cities, rather than forcing the issue.

The passenger load factor exceeding 80% is the statistics of China's civil aviation; our figures are around 60-something percent, actually only 65%.

— Liang Wen-chiehContrasting Taiwan's passenger load factor data with China's claims.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Liberty Times in Chinese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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