Taiwan Plans to Launch Direct Flights to Czech Republic in July

A direct flight service between Taiwan and Prague is expected to be launched in July, Transportation Minister Wang Kwo-tsai said Friday.

The new route will have two regular flights per week between Taoyuan International Airport and Vaclav Havel’s airport, Wang told lawmakers during a legislative interpellation session.

Taiwan has already received a commercial aviation right, while the application for each flight information region is currently still in progress, Wang said.

In a Facebook post, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) and China Airlines (CAL), Taiwan’s main carrier, have mulled the establishment of direct flights between the two countries for more than five years.

Czech Republic Senate President Miloš Vystrčil has been looking forward to the establishment of direct flight services between the two countries, You said, with the two having met during You’s visit last July.

Last September, a delegation led by Czech Republic Senator Jiří Drahoš visited Taiwan, during which he also expressed hope in facilitating direct flights between the two countries.

According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration, while Taiwan and the Czech Republic signed an air services agreement in October 2007, up until now, there have been no direct flights between them.

The plan will be to operate two flights per week between the two countries, the company said, indicating that once launched, Prague will be its sixth passenger destination in Europe after Vienna, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, London and Rome.