Taiwan’s government has made a gesture to Beijing aimed at easing tensions by dropping a decades-old ban on Taiwanese airlines using Chinese airspace.
Taiwanese premier Frank Hsieh says Taipei-based China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Air will now be allowed to apply for rights to overfly China to reduce fuel burn and flight time to Europe, the Middle East and south Asia.
It previously banned such overflights, citing security concerns. “The decision to remove the decades-old flyover ban was made out of consideration of helping carriers cut costs amid the current upward spiral in international crude oil prices,” says Hsieh. Beijing first said Taiwanese airlines could overfly its airspace in 2001.
Source: Airline Business
