The Philippines has again suspended all flights to Taiwan, saying that an interim accord reached in January was not agreeable to both sides. China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Air halted all Philippines flights from 15 March, re-routing passengers through Hong Kong, or issuing refunds.
Flights between the two countries were grounded for four months last October when the Philippines accused Taiwan of violating a 1996 agreement by carrying passengers from Manila through Taipei to the US West Coast. Flights resumed when a temporary agreement was reached on 28 January (Flight International, 8-14 February).
The Philippines Civil Aviation Board told Taiwan's representative office in Manila late on 14 March that all flights were immediately suspended. Early the following day an EVA cargo flight en route to Manila was forced to return to Taipei. "We were informed by air traffic control 25min into the flight that the Philippines had not approved any flights to their country," says EVA deputy senior vice-president K W Nieh.
EVA also re-routed 270 passengers from a scheduled passenger flight, while CAL re-routed nearly 500 passengers from two Manila-bound flights, sending most of them through Hong Kong. CAL sent an extra aircraft to Hong Kong to ferry passengers back to Taipei.
The last-minute decision generated widespread anger in Taiwan aviation circles. "It's ridiculous," says Joseph Tien, of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration. He adds that no further talks are scheduled and no immediate resolution of the dispute is expected. "We don't know what the issue is. The Philippines give us reasons, but none of the reasons makes any sense," he says.
Philippine Airlines, which flew the Manila-Taipei route four times a week before the latest suspension, had no flights scheduled on 15 March. CAL, which says it had strong forward bookings to the Philippines, with load factors of 85% through to mid-April, has cancelled all Philippines flights to the end of April.
Source: Flight International
