Flights to China

Taiwanese airlines were getting the worst hours for flights to China during the Lunar New Year holiday, reports said Wednesday.Taiwanese business people working in China complained that Chinese airlines had obtained three times as many slots for flights during the holiday next month, while the flights by Taiwanese airlines were stuck during the unpopular hours of the night, the Chinese language Liberty Times reported.

According to an announcement by the Civil Aeronautics Administration Tuesday, five Taiwanese airlines would operate 98 flights during the holiday period around Lunar New Year's day on February 14, while nine Chinese airlines were awarded a total of 287 flights.China Southern Airlines said it needed the space to bring Chinese tour groups to Taiwan, the paper reported.The flight arrangements could bring in more than 40,000 Chinese tourists to Taiwan or more than 3,000 a day, affecting the quality of travel for local holidaymakers, reports said.

Extra holiday flights by Taiwanese airlines from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen to Taiwan usually left after 11 p.m. as China used its local advantage to organize its routes, the Liberty Times quoted CAA official Yeh Yung-ching as saying.An Air China flight could leave Beijing at about 8 in the morning and take off from Taoyuan on the return leg at around noon, while a China Southern flight arrived in Taiwan at around 3:00 p.m., giving Taiwanese travelers ample opportunity to spend Lunar New Year's Eve at home, the paper said.

In contrast, the China Airlines flights left Taiwan between midnight and 2 a.m. and took off from Beijing at 5 or 6:50 in the morning.TransAsia Airways was awarded timeslots for two flights between Shanghai and Taichung which coincided with the Central Taiwanese airport’s closure for the night, the paper said. The same problem affected at least eight potential flights between Taipei's Sungshan Airport and Shanghai and Hangzhou.Apart from travelers blaming the government for failing to intervene on their behalf, travel agencies were reportedly also complaining that ticket fares were still higher than before despite the substantial increase in the number of flights.