Cross-Strait Flights Surge! China Eastern Airlines to Resume Direct Flights from Tainan to This Mainland City After 10-Year Hiatus

According to a recent announcement by China Eastern Airlines on its official WeChat account on August 24, the airline's newly launched routes, including the direct flight from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport to Tainan, have already been added to the pre-booking section of its official app. Once ticket sales officially begin, users who have registered for alerts will be notified immediately.

The new route between Wuhan and Tainan was previously a regular scheduled service operated by China Eastern Airlines. Initially launched as a charter flight in 2013, it achieved consistently high load factors of over 90%, leading to its conversion into a regular scheduled service starting August 1, 2014. The route operated with one round-trip flight each on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The round-trip fare, excluding taxes, was approximately NT$15,000 at the time.

However, following the election of Tsai Ing-wen of the Democratic Progressive Party as Taiwan's president on January 16, 2016, China Eastern unilaterally notified Tainan Airport in March of that year of its decision to suspend the Wuhan-Tainan route, without providing a detailed explanation. It was widely speculated that the suspension was linked to political changes in Taiwan.

Prior to its suspension in March 2016, the Tainan-Wuhan route maintained an impressive average passenger load factor of 92%, indicating strong and stable demand. After a decade-long hiatus, China Eastern has now officially announced plans to resume the service.

Currently, flight details for the Tainan-Wuhan route are already available on China Eastern Airlines' official website. The flight departs Tainan at 12:45 PM and arrives in Wuhan at 3:45 PM, with a flight duration of approximately three hours. The aircraft type is the Boeing 737-800 (referred to as 738 on the website).

The exact operational schedule after resumption has not yet been confirmed, but it is expected to resume with two weekly round-trip flights. There are also rumors that the route will officially resume operations in November 2023.

Currently, Tainan Airport operates flights to Penghu and Kinmen via Uni Air, and to Okinawa and Kumamoto via Tigerair Taiwan.

Since the start of the summer season in 2023, there has been a surge in cross-strait direct flights. Mainland Chinese airlines have already launched or resumed four new cross-strait routes. Additionally, China Airlines is scheduled to resume its Taoyuan-Chongqing route on October 28. If China Eastern successfully resumes the Tainan-Wuhan route in November, it will become the sixth new or resumed cross-strait direct flight since the summer of 2023.

Latest List of Resumed and Newly Launched Cross-Strait Routes:

- China Eastern Airlines: Taichung ↔ Chengdu, launched July 1, weekly on Wednesdays and Sundays - Shandong Airlines: Taichung ↔ Qingdao, resumed July 23, weekly on Thursdays - Spring Airlines: Kaohsiung ↔ Ningbo, launched July 4, weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays - Loong Air: Taichung ↔ Chengdu Tianfu, launched July 28, weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays - China Airlines: Taoyuan ↔ Chongqing Jiangbei, resumed October 28, weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays - China Eastern Airlines: Tainan ↔ Wuhan, resumption expected from November, frequency to be announced

Note: Actual launch dates and flight schedules are subject to official announcements on each airline's website.