Pakistan reverses airspace ban on Taiwanese airlines

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reversed its decision to close its airspace completely to Taiwanese airlines, citing support for China’s One-China policy, and has allowed their flights to use Pakistani airspace.

According to Bloomberg, the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has allowed Taiwan’s EVA Airways Corporation and China Airlines Limited to use Pakistani airspace from 28 October to 27 March.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had said that the Aviation Division follows the One-China policy, under which only Mainland China is permitted. He said only Chinese airlines had been allowed to fly over Pakistan.

Flight routes changed

According to Flightradar24 tracking data, Taiwan’s leading airlines, China Airlines Limited and EVA Airways Corporation, began changing their routes last weekend. Both airlines stopped using Pakistani airspace altogether from the morning of 25 October.

Since Sunday, at least a dozen of their flights between Asia and Europe have flown over Russia.

Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Authority did not comment on the rerouting. It said, however, that it had never stopped its airlines from flying over Russia.

Russia has never formally banned Taiwanese airlines. After the war in Ukraine, however, they too had often avoided Russian airspace, like most Asian, European and North American airlines.

According to Bloomberg, Pakistan’s restrictions were even stricter than the policy of Mainland China itself, because China allows Taiwanese airlines to use its airspace.

Taiwanese airlines had been relying heavily on Pakistani airspace for their flights between Asia and Europe. According to the data, 14 flights of the two airlines had passed over Pakistan on 24 October.

The forced rerouting, with longer routes via South Asia, the Middle East or Russia, has added several hours to flight times. The extra distance will greatly increase jet fuel costs and deal a severe financial blow to Taiwanese airlines.