By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has become the first country to bar Taiwanese airlines from its airspace, saying only carriers from mainland China are allowed to fly over its territory.
Defence minister Khawaja Asif confirmed the restriction to Bloomberg News on Wednesday and tied it directly to Islamabad’s backing for Beijing’s One China policy. “The aviation division follows the One China policy – only mainland China is allowed,” he said, adding that Chinese airlines alone had been given permission to cross Pakistan.
Flight-tracking data cited by Bloomberg shows that China Airlines and Eva Air, Taiwan’s two largest long-haul carriers, have not flown over Pakistan since the morning of 25 October. At least a dozen of their Asia–Europe flights have crossed Russia since Sunday, according to Flightradar24. German media reports said the diverted services included China Airlines flights to Rome and Eva Air flights to Munich, Paris and Milan.
Both airlines declined to comment. Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration also did not comment on the rerouting, but said it had never banned its carriers from flying over Russia. Bloomberg said the Chinese and Taiwanese foreign ministries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Pakistani decision.
It is not clear what prompted the move, and Asif’s explanation is the only one offered so far. Bloomberg noted that airspace restrictions can tighten when geopolitical tensions rise. An aviation specialist at Chaoyang University in Taiwan, Lu Yen-liang, told a broadcaster that Pakistan had not let Taiwanese airlines overfly since the switch to the winter flying schedule, according to German reporting.
Pakistan’s position goes further than that of Beijing itself, Bloomberg reported, because mainland China allows Taiwanese airlines to fly over its territory. China claims Taiwan as its own; Taipei rejects that claim.
The diversions cost time and money. The rerouting has added hours to journeys between Asia and Europe and raised fuel costs, and China Airlines and Eva Air are also sending aircraft over other parts of South Asia and the Middle East, which lengthens flights further.
Russia is not a comfortable alternative for Taiwanese carriers. They have stayed out of Russian airspace since February 2022, in line with many Asian, European and North American airlines, though they were never formally barred from using it. Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, many Europe-bound flights from Taiwan crossed Russia, and the airlines have since generally flown over India, Pakistan and Central Asia instead.
That dependence on the South Asian corridor was exposed in May 2025, when India struck targets in Pakistan. Pakistan imposed a 48-hour airspace closure that disrupted more than 10 international flights operated by Taiwan’s two main carriers. China Airlines cancelled a non-stop service to London that week.
Pakistan severed official relations with Taiwan in 1951 in favour of closer ties with China. The two countries have grown closer under President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which has channelled billions of dollars into Pakistan, and they cooperate closely on defence. China is Pakistan’s largest supplier of weapons, and that relationship drew international attention in the May 2025 conflict with India, when Pakistan used Chinese-made J-10C fighter jets.
Islamabad has repeatedly restated its position on Taiwan. In early January, Foreign Office then spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan would continue to adhere to the One China principle and regard Taiwan as an “inalienable part of China”. He described the two countries as “iron-clad friends” and “all-weather strategic cooperative partners”.
His statement followed Chinese military drills around Taiwan, which included live-fire exercises simulating a blockade of key ports and attacks on maritime targets.
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