Regular cross-strait flights were officially launched yesterday, with several services experiencing low occupancy rates.
“The occupancy rates on flights to Chinese airports that have just begun to offer cross-strait flight services are low,” said Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) director-general Lee Lung-wen (李龍文).
Lee said that five domestic airlines had lowered ticket prices as per the CAA’s request. The number of regular tickets bought online dropped by between 3 percent and 20 percent compared with charter flights.
However, Lee said that regular flights to Shanghai could only drop by about 1 percent because the Chinese government has capped the number of cross-strait flights departing and landing in the city.
Yesterday, both China Airlines (CAL,中華航空) and EVA Airways (EVA, 長榮航空) operated 10 and nine cross-strait flights respectively. EVA’s flights to Shanghai had an occupancy rate of 98 percent. Flights to Ningbo and Qingdao also had more than 80 percent of seats filled.
CAL’s flights to Beijing and Shanghai were also packed. Its new services to Ningbo, Zhengzhou and Xian also had 90 percent seat occupancy.
Flights to Xiamen and Guangzhou dispatched by both airlines had around 60 percent to 70 percent occupancy.
China Southern Airlines dispatched six flights from Guangzhou, Shanghai, Guiyang, Guilin, Shenyang and Zhengzhou.
Airlines in China and Taiwan decided last week not to hold any inauguration ceremonies or festive events to celebrate the launch of regular cros=s-strait flight services because they considered it would be inappropriate in the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot.
In related news, some travel industry representatives yesterday expressed concern that the visit of the Dalai Lama might affect numbers of Chinese tourists.
Roget Hsu (?y), secretary-general of the Travel Agent Association, said that the nation receives an average of 1,000 applications per day for the entry of Chinese tourists, about 50 percent less than the industry had hoped.
“Aside from the disaster caused by Typhoon Morakot, and H1N1, the Dalai Lama’s visit might have an impact on the market,” Hsu said.
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