It seems all is not well with China Airlines and its Taipei to London route.
Data from AirlineRoute.net indicates that the direct service that operates two times a week has had no further bookings
The route between London and Taipei has been an odd on, with operates operating routes dependant on the political condition between Taiwan and China.
Currently, Eva Air (Taiwan’s “other” airline) operates a route to London via Bangkok, Cathay Pacific operating services via Hong Kong – as well as the rest of the regions “usual suspects” operating via their hubs.
China Airlines Public Relations states that they:
“is still evaluating the viability of this route while trying to improve the loads on this route”.
Loads and bookings are zero’d out from 25th March 2012 – which is never a good sign if you want to continue a route. Business Traveller indicates that other issues such as passenger loads and fuel prices are a bigger issue for the route – which in these times could move definitely put an axe to the route if it’s failing to perform
No “final” decision has been made on the route as yet – if extra stops are added, if it becomes heavily code-shared, etc.
As China Airlines is a SkyTeam member, it has the luck of two major hubs in Europe – Paris-CDG and Amsterdam Schiphol with frequent connections to the United Kingdom (as well as London, the regions as well). China Airlines also operates to Amsterdam with a pre-existing arrangement there.
Personally, the route doesn’t sound long for this world..