More airlines have cancelled or diverted flights over the past three days in order to avoid China’s military exercises in the Taiwan Strait following the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visit to Taipei.
The operational changes came after Beijing warned airlines to avoid six «danger zones» where the People’s Liberation Army is conducting exercises aimed at «defending sovereignty and territorial integrity» after the American official arrived in Taiwan late on Tuesday, despite warnings from the Chinese administration against it.
Since the same day, China has deployed fighter jets over the Taiwan Strait and increased military training exercises around the island nation. Yesterday, August 4th, it fired missiles as part of the biggest defence demonstration in the area so far.
In this context, many airlines chose to suspend several of their flights to Taipei. Others had to be diverted from their original route to avoid the nearby airspace, which was closed to civilian traffic. The geographical location of the strait makes travel between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia particularly difficult.
Operators from China, Taiwan, South Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia are the most affected
Korean Air cancelled all flights to Taiwan scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Another South Korea’s carrier, Asiana Airlines, confirmed the suspension of its services to Taipei scheduled for Friday.
In addition, both Singapore Airlines and its low-cost subsidiary Scoot cancelled all four scheduled flights between Singapore and Taipei on Friday. Both said they would monitor the situation for possible further changes.
On the other hand, Japanese ANA and Japan Airlines continued to operate their flights as planned, but with route deviations for flights to Taiwan’s capital, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Similarly, Cathay Pacific and Philippines Airlines reported that their operations would avoid the affected airspace and that the measure could result in longer flight times.
China Airlines and EVA Airways completed flights to and from Taiwan on Friday morning, as did American cargo carriers FedEx and United Parcel Service (UPS), although all avoided the areas where military exercises are taking place.
Finally, Vietnam’s civil aviation regulator warned domestic airlines to avoid flying over the area.
However, the impact of the increasing tensions in the Taiwan Strait on the industry could be expected to be less than in other regions with troubled airspaces, due to the smaller size of the affected area. In that sense, the consequences would be smaller than those caused by restrictions in airspaces such as those of Ukraine, Russia, North Korea, Afghanistan, Iraq or Syria.
