bocastephen

Well both national airlines of Taiwan are certainly raking it in given they are only selling full fare Y in coach, and their business fares are out to lunch - plus no upgrades using miles. They certainly figured out how to goose everyone who needs to fly to/from Taiwan.

tris06

Airlines may be charging a huge amount because they are providing a service (and trying to keep people employed during these tough times) for a very small number of people traveling. I heard international flight loading's are consistently under 10 percent. These are not normal times. I think best way to think about it is during these abnormal times we have regressed in economics of flying back to the early 1960's or even late 1950's where flying was much more expensive. I don't think there is anything to complain about because you have options if you want to use Eva air. Luckily for China airlines their cargo division is making money and allowing the airline to keep all their staff employed for the medium term. I think they may be in a great position compared to other airlines as they have started reducing staff numbers (Qantas just sacked 6000 and by the way has zero international flights currently).

coolfish1103

On Aug 17, China Airlines has posted scheduled operations for August and September on their website.

https://www.china-airlines.com/tw/zh...ert=39401-7030

In general, for long haul destinations:

JFK, LAX, SFO, YVR are the NA destinations that will be served.
AMS, FRA, LHR* are the Europe destinations that will be served.
All destinations to the Oceania (AKL, BNE, MEL, SYD) will be in operation, but mostly only on a bi-weekly (or even monthly) basis.

Regional wise ex-TPE:

CTU, PEK, PVG, XMN remain as the only destinations allowed to be served in mainland China due to Taiwan CDC restrictions.
HKG will be in operations on a 4 weekly schedule.
Southeast Asia destinations will see BKK, CGK, DPS, HAN, MNL, PEN, PNH, KUL, RGN, SIN, SGN in operation, with DPS, HAN and SGN being only inbound in August.
ICN and NRT are the only destinations served in Northeast Asia for August, with FUK, KIX and NGO added in September.

* Heathrow replacing Gatwick.

PVG and XMN will be the only round trip destinations served ex-KHH.
No flights will be in operation from other airports in Taiwan.

tris06

When this covid stuff starts to receed I presume there will be some really good offers to encourage people to travel again. interesting to see CI made a quaterly profit for April-June quarter. I am keen to get back to Taiwan to visit my friends

username

Taiwan just announced effective 5/19/2021 00:00 "Local DepartureTime":

1 - no transit passenger allowed
2 - only citizens and ARC holders are allowed in

This is until at least 6/18/21. https://www.cdc.gov.tw/Category/List...xTGf3kdrinf0FA

bocastephen

A little late with this - they should have cut off flights to/from India weeks ago, and forcibly quarantined those idiot employees from China Airlines, if not grounded that airline altogether. The best laid plans now gone to waste thanks to the incompetence of one company.

tris06

Maybe our Taiwan co posters can get a feel of the idea of re opening for atleast transitting throught Taoyuan Airport?
I am hoping to fly home in Mid 2022 and really hoping to get an indication that they wont still have the ban in place by then.
Otherwise i might need to fly directly or through Singapore.

bocastephen

It's not looking good right now - not sure where your origin is, and I assume you're flying to SIN, but there is the SQ LAX-TPE-SIN flight you might be able to take assuming there is no deplane/transit formality in TPE enroute.

coolfish1103

That flight is only sold as TPE-LAX vv or SIN-TPE vv, cannot do SIN-LAX.

bocastephen

Just confirmed this is the case as TPE transfers are blocked again - I think there is an transit exception for CI but not SQ.

coolfish1103

First of China Airlines newest 321NEO just arrived at Taipei. Aircraft features lie flat beds in Business Class and 13.3” PTV for Economy, 15.6” PTV for Business passengers.

Press release can be found on CI website.

https://www.china-airlines.com/tw/zh/discover/news/press-release/20211129

Business class layout will be 3 rows if 2-2 while Economy class will be 3-3.

bzcat

Do all CI A321 have flat bed business class?

I guess AE and Tiger will have the high density version?

tris06

Actually I currently live/work in China but it is a very short distance to Hong Kong airport and my home Is in and around Brisbane, Australia. Just being a member it would be nice to be able to use them instead of going a non skyteam airline.

And I can't take a direct flight out of China (also hugely exspensive to do so at the moment). I just realised I could consider Vietnam airlines or Garuda into Sydney potentially.

For countries like China and Australia you think the Taiwanese officals might be smarter to allow certain transfers (transits) considering both places have had or have very low case numbers of the virus.

China itself is like shut tight and for its size has really small number of cases.

I suppose they couldn't bother hiring 1 or 2 people like a public servant to monitor daily (weekly averages) cases numbers and be able consider individual routes for transitting instead of a blanket ban. I am sure.CI and Eva would be happy to subsidise the cost of the admin needed.

Those A321's look great, sure i still prefer the A350 and to a lesser extent the B777 but it is a good improvement.

Anyway lets hope for good news in 2022. Atleast I did plenty of travel in China itself where CI membership can still be used with CZ,MU and Xiamen to get some benefits (lounge access).

Hope all have a great New Year.

coolfish1103

Yes, all CI 321 aircrafts have lie flat.

Not sure about AE since they likely will only use CI’s aircraft or lease it. Maybe there will be another configuration.

Tiger likely no lie flat unless codeshare routes like Ningbo using CI’s aircraft.

coolfish1103

AE is taking the 738s as the E90s are being phased by end of this year.

Fantasy Sky is now installed on the 738s as internal wifi so one can access entertainment on all CI's aircraft as of December 2021 by utilizing self device.