Why did my CA flight avoid Taiwan yesterday?
Jan 6, 2019, 12:52 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: IAH, YYC
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 753
Why did my CA flight avoid Taiwan yesterday?
Yesterday I flew CA from MEL-PVG. As shown on the screenshot, the flight took a significant detour around Taiwan, which added a lot of distance compared to the most direct route. As far as I’m aware, CA operates flights to Taipei, and the detour was too big to be weather related. Can anyone enlighten me about whether this is normal, and whether the detour was for political reasons or some other explanation?
Jan 6, 2019, 3:10 am
#2
Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: China
Programs: A3 G CZ S
Posts: 50
It’s normal and for political/military reason, you may find similar path if look into the flight route of MU, QF, not apply to CA only.
The reason for it is civil flight (actually all flight) is not allow to straight through the mid-line of Taiwan strait (it will show more clearly if you try to look into the flight path for flights between Taipei and Xiamen (for example MF887), a even significant detour will be foundFor the flight that attend to straight through the midline of Taiwan strait, may be potentially identified as a threat by either side’s authority/military
Jan 7, 2019, 5:08 am
#3
Join Date: Oct 2012
Programs: Dynasty Frequent Flyer (Elite Plus),Accor Platinum
Posts: 1,866
You think that is a detour? Wait until you take CI or BR to Europe. Those flights for the most part need to fly around the PRC. Flying to Amsterdam from Taipei for example required either flying north east over Japan until it reaches the far eastern parts of Russia then it can turn west or flying south west to Vietnam over Thailand, Over India then north west to Europe. Easily adds 1-2hrs to the flight time.
Jan 8, 2019, 12:27 pm
#5
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: LAX
Programs: AA Plat, DL, AS, UA, IHG Plat
Posts: 2,407
jasoncheng pretty much nailed it - no aircraft other than those flying between Taiwan and KNH can cross the Taiwan Strait. So there are no air corridors setup for overfly from Australia to China via TPE flight information region (FIR).
But just to clarify further, CA could have elected to enter Taiwan airspace but that means flying northeast past TPE then using the air corridor setup for the TPE-PVG flights near ICN FIR that are specially setup to handle flights entering PVG control from TPE control. So either way, there is a detour. By entering HKG FIR control off the coast of China, the pilots can potentially get better priority handling with HKG FIR hand off to PVG FIR control because they will be in PVG handling much longer than flying in from TPE FIR. So logistically, it makes more sense to detour west rather than east.
You can get a good look at the FIR map here: https://arcg.is/1SPfnr
But just to clarify further, CA could have elected to enter Taiwan airspace but that means flying northeast past TPE then using the air corridor setup for the TPE-PVG flights near ICN FIR that are specially setup to handle flights entering PVG control from TPE control. So either way, there is a detour. By entering HKG FIR control off the coast of China, the pilots can potentially get better priority handling with HKG FIR hand off to PVG FIR control because they will be in PVG handling much longer than flying in from TPE FIR. So logistically, it makes more sense to detour west rather than east.
You can get a good look at the FIR map here: https://arcg.is/1SPfnr
Last edited by bzcat; Jan 8, 2019 at 12:43 pm