China Eastern Launches Wuhan’s 1st Taipei Flight Since COVID

After an interruption of nearly three years and eight months, the direct flight route between Wuhan and Taipei has finally resumed. On the morning of the 18th, China Eastern Airlines flight MU2087 took off from Wuhan Tianhe International Airport (WUH) and landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) over two hours later. After a 1 hour and 53-minute layover in Taipei, the return flight carried more than 160 passengers back to Wuhan.

Based on the relevant arrangements, civil aviation routes continue to avoid the sensitive Taiwan Strait area.

The return flight from Taipei to Wuhan was fully booked, with more than 100 prominent figures from Taiwan’s political and business sectors on board. This included Kuomintang (KMT) Vice Chairman Lien Sheng-wen and the Taiwan Business Association (TBA) Chairman Hsu Shu-po, among others. Most were invited to attend the 17th Hubei Wuhan Taiwan Week event opening in Wuhan the following day.

Upon arriving in Wuhan, Hsu Shu-po, TBA Chairman, stated,

“Today, the cabin was almost full, and whether it’s for people’s exchanges or business interactions, everyone is eagerly looking forward to the swift and comprehensive resumption of cross-strait exchanges.”

Due to Wuhan being the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, this flight route was the first cross-strait route to be suspended, making its resumption particularly significant.

The interrupted Wuhan route due to the outbreak of the pandemic

Before the pandemic in 2019, the cross-strait flights to Wuhan carried more than 189,000 passengers. Four airlines from both sides of the strait – China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, China Airlines, and Mandarin Airlines – operated flights on the route.

According to the resumption plan, China Eastern Airlines’ resumed Wuhan-Taipei round-trip flight, with flight numbers MU2087/2088, is scheduled to operate two flights per week, on Mondays and Thursdays. The outbound flight is scheduled to depart from Wuhan at 15:05 and arrive at Taipei Taoyuan Airport at 17:30. The return flight is scheduled to depart from Taipei Taoyuan Airport at 18:40 and arrive in Wuhan at 21:20.

According to information released by China Southern Airlines, the carrier is also set to resume its Wuhan to Taiwan Taoyuan route on September 22nd. China Southern has been steadily resuming multiple cross-strait direct flight routes since the beginning of the year. In addition to the Wuhan route, a Zhengzhou route is set to commence operations in September, bringing the total number of cities served to five. There will be a total of 48 weekly round-trip flights between the two sides of the strait.

Photo: Uskarp / Shutterstock

China Airlines is currently evaluating whether to resume flights.

The resumption of cross-strait routes in the post-COVID era

On March 9th of this year, except for the uninterrupted cross-strait flight to Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Chengdu (four green dots below), Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council announced plans to gradually resume regular flights to ten major cities in mainland China. These cities include Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Wuhan, Ningbo, and Zhengzhou (ten red dots below).

Photo: Su Wu / Simple Flying

Following this announcement, China Airlines and EVA Air announced the gradual resumption of flights from Taipei Taoyuan and Kaohsiung to several cities on the mainland, including Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou, starting on March 26th. Over the past six months, multiple cross-strait flight routes and destinations have gradually resumed service.

While the number of cross-strait flights and destinations has not fully returned to pre-pandemic levels, the gradual resumption of flights has made travel more convenient for the public and has had positive effects on cross-strait exchanges. A Taiwanese businessperson who boarded a flight from Taipei to Wuhan on the 18th expressed,

“The Wuhan route was suspended at the beginning of the pandemic, and its resumption is indeed a positive signal.”