Some China Airlines and EVA Air flights to Europe have begun using Russian airspace, Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported on October 28, 2026. Transport Minister Chen Shih-kai said airlines apply for their own routings and that his ministry respects those arrangements.
The developments come as a separate report says Pakistan has stopped allowing Taiwanese airlines to overfly its territory. The two accounts establish different points: the minister discussed airline routing decisions, while the reported Pakistani restriction was attributed to Pakistan’s defence minister by Bloomberg.
What Taiwan’s transport minister said
CNA’s October 28 report, based on a media interview before a legislative transport committee meeting, identifies China Airlines’ Rome service and EVA Air services to Munich, Paris and Milan as using Russian airspace.
Chen said the civil aviation authority manages route origins and destinations, while airlines seek approval for their flight paths. Asked about reports that Pakistan had not issued overflight permission, he spoke about airlines choosing routes with safety and journey time in mind; the account does not provide a confirmation from him of Pakistan’s restriction.
Pakistan policy reported separately
Anadolu’s report carried by The Express Tribune cites Bloomberg quoting Defence Minister Khawaja Asif as linking the exclusion of Taiwanese carriers to Pakistan’s One-China policy. It says China Airlines and EVA Air had stopped overflying Pakistan from Sunday, October 25.
Flyzeu has not reviewed the underlying Pakistani overflight notice or Bloomberg’s full original report. The precise legal scope, start time and duration of any restriction have therefore not been independently established here. This is not a report that Pakistan has closed its airspace to all international airlines.
Check your itinerary
Passengers should check their airline’s current departure and arrival times, especially where a connection depends on a short transfer. A changed flight path alone does not establish that a flight is cancelled, and the reviewed reports do not quantify a consistent time penalty across the affected services.
See Flyzeu’s Taiwan aviation coverage.
Archive photograph: China Airlines Airbus A350 B-18903 landing at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on May 21, 2017. Not a current rerouted flight or evidence of a flight path. Photo: 湯小沅, via Wikimedia Commons and Flickr, CC0. Resized and compressed to WebP.
