Will a Large Number of Mainland Chinese Tourists Come to Taiwan? 'Direct Flights from Two Cities Fully Resumed' – Three Major Airlines Restart Services from July, Full Route List Here

Southern Taiwan's cross-strait transportation has seen a new development. The long-suspended direct flight route between Kaohsiung and Ningbo, Zhejiang, officially resumed operations on July 4, 2024. Operated by Spring Airlines using an Airbus A320 aircraft, the route runs one flight each on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Flight 9C8685 departs Ningbo Lishe Airport at 3:30 PM and arrives at Kaohsiung Airport at 5:35 PM. The return flight, 9C8686, departs Kaohsiung at 6:35 PM and lands back in Ningbo at 8:35 PM. The inaugural flight after resumption was nearly fully booked, demonstrating strong demand from southern Taiwan residents and Taiwanese businesspeople for direct flights.

Saving 3 hours one-way! Why is the Kaohsiung-Ningbo route so popular?

Previously, without direct flights, travelers had to transit through a third location, resulting in one-way travel times exceeding five hours. With the resumption of direct flights, flight duration has been reduced to approximately two hours, significantly reducing travel fatigue. Zhang Wen, General Manager of Spring Airlines' Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan division, stated that the central and southern Taiwan market has shown high activity, and Ningbo Airport's strong geographical connectivity to many popular destinations has driven strong ticket sales since the route went on sale.

Choi Tsung-yu,理事长 of the Kaohsiung City Travel Industry Association, took the inaugural flight on the evening of the 4th and remarked, 'The resumption of cross-strait direct flights has finally begun.' He pointed out that this route was originally launched by Spring Airlines on June 16, 2019, and already held legal flight rights. The fact that the first flight after resumption sold out immediately proves a solid market foundation, bringing positive benefits to city-to-city exchanges, business interactions, and tourism development.

Are other popular routes stuck in review? Tourism industry hopes for full recovery soon

In addition to the Ningbo route, mainland Chinese airlines have recently begun expanding to other destinations. For example, China Eastern Airlines resumed direct flights between Taichung and Chengdu on July 1, carrying 163 passengers on its first flight. Shandong Airlines also plans to restart direct service between Taichung and Qingdao starting July 23. However, many resumption applications submitted by major Taiwanese carriers such as China Airlines and EVA Air have not yet been approved, and in-demand routes like Kaohsiung to Kunming remain unable to resume operations.

Choi emphasized that the more comprehensive the direct flight network becomes, the smoother the flow of people and goods will be, enabling travel agencies to design richer tourism products. The industry widely hopes that government authorities will actively assist in gradually restoring cross-strait direct flight routes to pre-pandemic levels, driving a full recovery of the tourism industry and its surrounding supply chains.