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Updated Saturday, July 24, 2010 7:49 pm TWN, The China Post news staff

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Aviation impasse must be resolved

The mainland has complained that Taiwan has been trying to skirt around its commitment to boost flights to Fuzhou and Xiamen, which it says are the most convenient points for travelers heading to and from Taiwan to change planes on their way to other destinations.

　No matter who is right and who is wrong, this impasse needs to be resolved so that flights will not start getting canceled.

For decades, travelers making their way across the Taiwan Strait have been forced to connect at third areas, such as Hong Kong and Macao.

This has made what should be a two or three-hour trip into a day-long affair, with delays commonplace.

It has also reaped great profits for airlines in Hong Kong and Macao, while leaving Taiwan and mainland Chinese airlines only able to ferry passengers to the transit points.

　The opening of direct cross-strait flights was supposed to resolve this situation and let airlines in Taiwan and mainland China finally start to reap the profits that had gone to Hong Kong and Macao for so many years.

While Beijing wants Taiwanese travelers to make their transit stops in Fuzhou and Xiamen, the marketplace will ultimately decide whether “hub and spoke” style aviation will win out over direct flights, which have been immensely popular.

Beijing is also keen on diverting flight traffic to Fuzhou and Xiamen as part of its large-scale plans to develop a “Western Coastal Zone” in Fujian based around increased economic interaction with wealthy and industrialized Taiwan.

In the end, the frequency of flights to these two cities will have to be determined by the marketplace. If the 20 additional flights constantly run empty, even mainland China's government will have no choice but to shut most of them down.

But our side should not make the additional flights to Fuzhou and Xiamen a sticking point that results in cancellation of immensely popular routes to Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen.

Even now, there are still not enough flights connecting these cities with major airports in Taiwan, and the services that do exist are largely geared towards accommodating tour groups rather than business travel.

Something needs to be done quickly to ensure that the smooth flow of passenger and cargo traffic across the Taiwan Strait will not get interrupted over a technicality.

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