By Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said on Wednesday that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10 km (6 miles) from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns.
Xiamen’s new Xiang’an airport is only around 3 km (1.9 miles) at its closest point from the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands – the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War – and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side.
In a written statement sent to Reuters, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced planning and coordination to ensure smooth operations and safety.
The administration has requested China, via existing liaison channels, provide planning information to assess the impact of Xiang’an airport on Kinmen airport, it said.
“However, the relevant Chinese civil aviation authorities have not provided any information to us to date,” it added.
“China has an obligation to ensure that the newly built Xiamen Xiang’an airport will not affect our airspace,” it said.
“Prior communication and coordination are the first step to ensuring safety, and the Civil Aviation Administration calls on the Chinese air traffic control authorities to begin discussions with us promptly.”
Neither China’s Taiwan Affairs Office nor the Civil Aviation Administration of China immediately responded to requests for comment.
Kinmen airport mostly offers domestic flights to other Taiwanese airports, but has occasional international charters.
China’s government refuses to speak to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, saying he is a “separatist”.
Taiwan officials have raised concerns that China could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan that will be rolled out early next year, and see Xiamen’s airports as potential part of that plan.
Taiwan and China have clashed over flight safety around Taiwan’s offshore islands before, including over China’s opening of new flight routes in the sensitive Taiwan Strait that Taipei denounced as unilateral moves likewise made without consultation.
Taiwan has controlled the Kinmen and Matsu islands, which sit just off the Chinese coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
