Is there a central online location where one can find the weekend flight schedule to/from the Mainland?
Specifically, I’m interested to know if there’s a Shanghai<->Hualien flight, yet I only see in the news that only one flight will be taking off from Hualien to Guangzhou and then none afterwards.
Assuming there’s no direct Shanghai<->Hualien, I assume it would be faster to transit through Kaohisung rather than Songshan in Taipei due to the shorter distance. Or is the transit time faster through Songshan that removes any distance advantage through Kaohsiung?
Yes, it’s still through Hong Kong, but only through Hong Kong airspace starting this month without the need to land. Surely you’ve heard the news about direct flights?
Is that how the CCP defines direct flights? I should have thought a direct flight would be something like a straight line from Taipei to Shanghai without a four hour diversion to enter Hong Kong airspace, but maybe that’s just me.
They are charters so there may not be a published schedule but I am sure the airlines plan ahead at least a week or maybe two. So they must know what they have planned. The authorities on both sides have simply given their respective airlines the right to fly to 8 Taiwanese airports from 5 Chinese ones and vice versa. Its up to the airlines themselves to report their intentions , probably on a week to week basis for automatic approval.
Unfortunately the Chinese airlines are still in the process of setting up local offices. But I would contact EVA, CAL, Transasia, Mandarin and Uni directly to see what their schedule is likely to be. I would think in order to fill those planes, would be passengers need some advance time to plan. So I would imagine they have a schedule up to two weeks or more in place?
China wants straight point to point flying. But the Taiwanese fearing security concerns insist must be thru HK airspace at moment but have agreed to work out several other air routes. This only makes sense.
Ultimately, it was the Taiwan side that refused a straight line direct flight, so in this instance, save your mocking laughs for the Taiwanese military. While I’m certainly not happy about the detour, it’s undoubtedly a lot more direct than having to land. This in itself is a vast improvement and sets the foundation for further improvements down the road. If I had to land in Hong Kong, I wouldn’t even consider a weekend jaunt from Shanghai to Hualien. The new indirect direct flight has changed the equation for this traveler.
At the very very least I believe that they will make another air route to the north of Taiwan for flights to/from Shanghai and Peking and other Northern China cities to use.
Its pretty ridiculous for them to fly down so far to HK airspace and then fly up to Taiwan.
The cities in southern China have no real issues against using HK airspace as the detour is not so great.
The cities directly across from TAiwan tho will either have to go north and then drop down or go south and then come up. But at most they are wasting perhaps 30 to 40 mins flight time.
I think a northern route is coming very soon. And so is daily flights. I think daily flights will happen later this year. With each airline restricted to something like 3 flights a day to start.
I think that Sungshan is also gearing up for A330 and 777 arrivals/departures . All they have to do is move some fuel bunkers that they set up since 747 and the like stopped coming 30 years ago But the runway is made for heavy jet use so thats not a problem. It is a bit shorter then desirable though so they need to use a bit of caution.
But Sungshan is proving extremely popular for China flights (no wonder as people can fly out and back to Taipei city with much more convenience then Taoyuan) and A330 and 777 capability would be much desired. Is is a good thing that the domestic flight industry has basically gone redundant in this case as otherwise Sungshan was pretty much full slot wise.
Reviving this thread to say that the authorities in Taiwan and China have agreed to bring back direct flights between more cities on the two sides.
Following the COVID restrictions, the only operating flights connect Taiwan to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, and Xiamen.
Starting tomorrow, March 10, the following cities will be eligible too: Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Wuhan, Ningbo, and Zhengzhou.
China Airlines has reportedly said that they would add flights to Shenzhen and Guangzhou first. EVA meanwhile is reportedly still mulling the matter.
The primary market for these flights would be business travellers, and I suppose potentially some tourists from Taiwan visiting China. PRC citizens (excluding HK and Macau) currently cannot enter Taiwan as tourists.
