Two major Taiwanese airlines are counting on the resumption of cross-strait talks this week to reverse their negative financial performances in the first quarter, providing China will relax its position and allow them to carry cargo along with passengers.
Taiwan and China are scheduled to revive dialogue this week and take up the issue of opening regular weekend charter flight services as well as allowing Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan.
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), which posted negative after-tax profits in the first three months of this year, are hoping that the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) can help them curb the trend when its representatives meet in Beijing with their Chinese counterparts from the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Strait.
CAL lost NT$2.97 billion in the first quarter, while EVA suffered NT$2.28 billion in losses during the same period.
The two companies have said they hope Beijing will allow them to fill the luggage compartments of their passenger planes with cargo destined for the US via Taipei to help offset increasing fuel costs.
Under a preliminary bilateral agreement, the two sides may each operate 18 flights between Friday and Monday, meaning there would be three or four flights for each of the five Taiwanese air companies a week after the introduction of weekend charter flight services next month.
The Beijing side reportedly has refused to allow Taiwanese passenger planes to fly cargo on the grounds that no Chinese air companies engage in such service.
Passenger aircraft owned by CAL and EVA can carry cargo weighing from 16 tonnes to 22 tonnes, the companies said.
The airlines added that failure to utilize cargo compartments is contrary to cost-efficiency and unfriendly to the environment at a time when the world is seeking to rein in greenhouse gas emissions.
But Chinese negotiators have showed little interest in addressing the issue, saying it is not urgent.
CAL said it would consider leasing China’s airplanes to fly its cargo, so both sides may benefit from the service, if that is what it takes to reach an agreement with Chinese negotiators.
The upcoming talks will mark the first exchange in a decade as Beijing has refused to engage in official contact with Taipei since July 1999 when then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) portrayed cross-strait ties as special “state-to-state” in nature.
SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) will lead a delegation to Beijing on Wednesday for talks as part of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) efforts to improve cross-strait ties and Taiwan’s economy.
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