China's mainland carriers gear up for launch of operations across the Taiwan Strait
16 Apr 2008
Chinese mainland carriers are gearing up to launch commercial operations across the Taiwan Strait before the end of the year, if newly elected Taiwanese president, Ma Yingjiu, sticks to his promise to liberalise the existing air regime between the two nations. The Taiwanese Straits are recognised more for the periodic eruption of tensions between the two nations for it acts as a natural boundary.
Ma, who is due to take office on 20 May, has said that he intends to permit the launch of weekend charter flights across the strait in July, followed by daily scheduled flights before 2009.
According to China International Capital Corp.(CICC), mainland carriers are already sniffing "big market potential" in traffic flowing across the strait. According to CICC, the route is expected to contribute more than CNY5 billion ($714.2 million) to the collective annual net profit of mainland carriers.
According to media reports, Air China may establish a branch office on Taiwan soon after Ma assumes the presidency. On its part, Air China has stated that "all mainland carriers are preparing for launching the cross-strait flights."
According to CICC calculations, China Eastern Airlines may benefit the most from the initiation of flights between the two countries as 35 per cent of the Taiwanese population living on the Chinese mainland reside in Shanghai and neighboring Jiangsu province.
China Southern Airlines may also benefit from this traffic as it holds a 60 per cent stake in Xiamen Airlines, which serves the nearby Fujian province. A quarter of the mainland's Taiwanese population lives in the Pearl River Delta region and another 10 per cent in Fujian province.
