Resumption of China flights still up in the air

MANILA, Philippines — The aviation industry’s hope of flying to China soon has crashed into another wall of setback, as airline firms try to deal with mandatory reroutings due to the escalating tension in Taiwan.

Local airlines that are just starting to restore their foreign routes find themselves facing another trouble, resulting from the brewing conflict between China and Taiwan, which is disrupting flights to East Asia from proceeding as usual.

Carmina Romero, spokesperson of budget airline Cebu Pacific, said planes bound for South Korea and Japan are avoiding the Taiwanese airspace given the latest developments.

“We are proactively routing our Incheon flights away from Taiwan airspace. Manila and Cebu to Incheon (and vice versa) don’t always fly over Taiwan, depending on wind and weather, but we will be flying through Japanese airspace until further notice,” Romero told The STAR.

“All flights to and from Japan will also not fly over Taiwan. (For now), it’s minimal impact on us,” she clarified.

Likewise, flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) received a notice to airmen from Taipei about the closure of Taiwanese airspace from Aug. 4 to 7.

In spite of this, PAL spokesperson Cielo Villaluna said Flight PR 890 bound for Taipei managed to go out using a designated cleared flight routing from Taiwanese authorities.

“We are closely monitoring the situation in Taiwan, (as) we’ve received the notice to airmen from Taiwan aviation authorities regarding a specific airspace closure from 12 noon of Aug. 4 up to 12 noon of Aug. 7,” Villaluna told The STAR.

“Our flight to and from Taipei for Aug. 4, PR 890, operated as scheduled utilizing a designated cleared flight routing. PAL assures that regular coordination is being carried out with Taiwanese authorities,” she said.

Cebu Pacific operates the Manila-Taipei and vice versa route every Wednesday. Further, it flies out to at least five destinations in East Asia situated near Taiwanese airspace.

On the other hand, PAL sends out four flights a week to Taipei, every Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, operating seven routes, as well landing in East Asian places.

The growing unrest in Taiwan worsens the uncertainty as to when local airlines like Cebu Pacific and PAL can restart commercial flights to the $2 billion market of China that has remained shut to the world. – Rudy Santos