TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Friday (April 19) announced that it will activate its connecting routes on the controversial M503 flight path that nears Taiwan's restricted airspace.
The CAAC said eastbound W122 and W123 routes will connect to the M503 flight path. It added that on May 16, the arrival and departure airspace over the Fuzhou Changle International Airport will be “further optimized and adjusted.”
The administration claimed this “optimization of airspace in Fujian province" and adjustments to the operation of the M503 route and its connecting flight paths will be conducive to meeting the “development needs” of aviation transportation between the Yangtze River Delta and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as well as southeastern coastal regions.
It purported these changes are meant to optimize the operational environment, ensure flight safety, enhance capabilities to cope with the thunderstorm season, improve flight regularity, and serve passenger travel.
The CAAC in January announced that effective Feb. 1 the flight "offset measure" for route M503 operating from north to south would be canceled, meaning Chinese flights flying southbound over the Taiwan Strait would come closer to the median line and Taiwan's Flight Information Region (FIR).
The CAAC also planned to enable eastbound W122 and W123 routes to "improve the efficiency of airspace operations." These routes link route M503 with Fuzhou and Xiamen.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) spokesperson Chien Chih-hung (詹志宏) said in February that China's “unilateral activation" of the W122 and W123 routes would have a “great impact on the flight safety of Kinmen and Matsu," reported Rti.
Chien said previously flights only operated in a westward direction, allowing for coordination and ensuring flight route safety. Chien said the eastbound flights would “affect Taiwan's existing air routes, raising great concerns about flight safety risks.”
Damien Symon, an open-source intelligence researcher on Feb. 1 uploaded a map showing the proximity of the modified route to the median line and Taiwan's FIR. Symon pointed out that the altered routes come close to the Air Force's military patrol zones that are meant to serve as strategic buffer zones against People's Liberation Army aircraft.
