China Airlines expanding cross-strait flights

China Airlines, the national carrier of Taiwan, has announced it is entering into partnership with three Chinese carriers for expanding the number of cross-strait flights. The airline wants to serve the growing passenger demand amid the strengthening of relations between China and Taiwan.

China Airlines has indicated that it will be closely working with prominent Chinese carriers such as Xiamen Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines to increase the number of roundtrip cross-strait flights from the existing 328 to 357 every week.

The Taiwanese carrier has stated that the cross-strait flights will be increased to 152 effective from July 2014. The airline is currently operating 129 flights. Additionally, China Airlines has also decided to launch flights services to new destinations in China from Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport. The number of destinations will now increase to 32 from 28. The cities where new flights are to be launched include Hefei, Xuzhou, Yentai and Changchun.

China Airlines is also planning to increase frequencies on its existing routes. The new routes to be served by the airline include Taoyuan-Ningbo, Taoyuan-Shenyang, Taoyuan-Lijiang, and Taichung-Zhengzhou. The airline will also be adding flights to Nanchang, Kaohsiung and Wenzhou from Taoyuan, as well as between Lijiang and Kaohsiung by the end of this year.

The three Chinese carriers – China Eastern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines and China Southern Airlines – are also preparing to add six roundtrip flights. The flights by the Chinese carriers are being increased keeping with the new agreement between China and Taiwan to increase the number of flights between the two countries to 828 from the existing 670 every week.