SQ452 From United States of America, joined Apr 2004, 1053 posts, RR: 0 Posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1575 times:
Was having a discussion the other day with someone who regularly commutes from the Middle East to Taiwan.
That got me thinking, why isn't there any passenger service by the 'big 3' middle east carriers to TPE?
And come to think of it, why don't BR or CI fly to the Middle East either?
The absence of flights isn't because of political, cross-straits issues is it? There has to be a sizable market for TPE-Middle East service, particularly the potential onward connections to Europe.
trex8 From United States of America, joined Nov 2002, 3970 posts, RR: 14 Reply 1, posted (3 months 2 weeks 5 days 1 hour ago) and read 1543 times:
CI used to fly to Jeddah and Dhahran in the 80s. There were strong political military ties back then but then the Saudi government started to kow tow to Beijing (and then they got those IRBMs in the late 80s from Beijing). CI had pax Abu Dhabi flights till 2-3 years ago but only cargo now. Traffic just cant support it anymore with all the new ME players.
LondonCity From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2008, 1203 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1150 times:
The reason must be political. The three big Gulf carriers know that mainland China holds more potential than Taiwan so they don't want to risk upsetting the government in Beijing.
raffik From United Kingdom, joined Feb 2006, 1646 posts, RR: 4 Reply 3, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1119 times:
Strange that not even Emirates have started services there yet! Must be on their radar.
China Air Cargo serve some cargo routes to the middle east from there so there must be some sort of demand
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 6 hours ago) and read 1088 times:
I think the political issue has gone after Mainland and Taiwan has signed the bilateral contracts. As KLM and JAL can fly to TPE now, there is no longer any political issue.
True, ME carriers are in ME but they heavily depend on connections to EU. But actually the EU-Taiwan market is very limited. Only KLM serves 1xdaily non-stop to TPE. Both CI and BR use BKK as a stop in their flight to EU. Most of the passengers can use HKG, SIN or KUL to transfer, which is often cheaper and more convenient.
LondonCity From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2008, 1203 posts, RR: 0 Reply 6, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 967 times:
Quoting justinlee (Reply 4): I think the political issue has gone after Mainland and Taiwan has signed the bilateral contracts. As KLM and JAL can fly to TPE now, there is no longer any political issue.
Strange that KLM uses its KLM Asia brand to serve TPE. That would suggest there are still some prickly issues surrounding flights to the "two Chinas."
b2319 From China, joined Jan 2013, 83 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (3 months 2 weeks 4 days 3 hours ago) and read 912 times:
Quoting LondonCity (Reply 6): Strange that KLM uses its KLM Asia brand to serve TPE. That would suggest there are still some prickly issues surrounding flights to the "two Chinas."
I would suggest that someone who is either Chinese (justinlee), or is living in China (myself) is better placed to comment.
Truly, there have been massive increases in direct "cross-straits" flights in recent years, unthinkable five years ago. IMO, it's a significant contributing factor to Cathay Pacific's downturn over the last few years.
DolphinAir747 From United States of America, joined Jun 2012, 220 posts, RR: 0 Reply 8, posted (3 months 2 weeks 3 days 16 hours ago) and read 703 times:
TPE-Middle East/Africa/Europe/South America isn't a very big market. TPE's O&D is much bigger in markets such as TPE-SFO/LAX/NYC/YVR/SEA etc.
justinlee From China, joined Aug 2012, 306 posts, RR: 0 Reply 9, posted (3 months 2 weeks 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 609 times:
Quoting LondonCity (Reply 6): Strange that KLM uses its KLM Asia brand to serve TPE. That would suggest there are still some prickly issues surrounding flights to the "two Chinas."
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