WHAT TO KNOW
Last weekend, Taiwan’s two biggest airlines resumed flights over Russia for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine. But the decision wasn’t to cut flight times by using the Polar Route on flights to Europe. Instead the ‘One China’ policy might be to blame.
In this article
- China Airlines and Eva Air have been operating flights from Europe to Taiwan through Russian airspace in recent days.
- The reason could be linked to Pakistan reportedly denying both airlines permission to use its airspace.
- Pakistan has long recognized the ‘One China’ policy which insists Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China.
- On Wednesday, Pakistan said it had granted China Airlines and EVA Air permission to use its airspace.
Over the weekend, Taiwan’s two biggest international airlines resumed flights through Russian airspace for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The decision caught passengers off-guard, but it now seems like we have a reason for the sudden change: The so-called ‘One China’ policy.
The government of Taiwan has considered the island to be an independent country since 1949, when the defeated Nationalist government fled to Taiwan at the culmination of the Chinese Civil War.
Beijing has never recognized Taiwan as an independent country. In its eyes, Taiwan is a breakaway province that will one day be reunited with the rest of the People’s Republic of China. In furtherance of this objective, Beijing has a longstanding ‘One China’ policy.
The One China policy exerts political pressure on other governments not to recognize Taiwan as an independent state. That’s why Taiwan doesn’t have a seat at the United Nations, and why the island’s athletes compete under the name of Chinese Taipei at the Olympics.
As you can imagine, the One China policy can make it difficult for airlines based in Taiwan to utilise airspace over the Chinese mainland. While both EVA Air and China Airlines operate flights between Taiwan and the PRC, long-haul flights generally avoid its airspace.
For flights to Europe, Air China and EVA Air have typically taken a southerly route that routes through Thailand, India, Pakistan and the Middle East, before reaching Europe.
Over the weekend, however, Pakistan reportedly banned these Taiwan-based airlines from its airspace. For context, Pakistan accepts the One China policy.
When Pakistan allegedly closed its airspace, China Airlines and EVA Air had to work out how they could still operate their flights to Europe. In some cases, the airlines were able to reroute their flights along the same southerly track, narrowly avoiding Pakistani airspace.
In other cases, however, the airlines opted to use Russian airspace. Take these flights as examples:
- On October 23, EVA Air operated its Paris to Taipei flight BR88 along the normal southerly route. On October 24, the service was cancelled, but it returned on October 25, this time taking the Polar Route across Russia and flying all the way around the PRC.
- China Airlines service CI-82 from London Heathrow to Taipei on October 23 took the southerly route through Pakistani airspace. On October 25, the flight still took the southerly route, but avoided Pakistan.
- Meanwhile, China Airlines flight CI-64 from Vienna to Taipei was using the southerly route until October 27, when it switched to the Polar Route.
The issue became more complicated on Wednesday evening when the Pakistani government announced that it had granted China Airlines and EVA Air permission to use the country’s airspace. Pakistan didn’t say whether the decision was a U-turn.
Neither China Airlines nor EVA Air has commented on the developments.
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