After govt advisory, US airlines share flight plans with China
2 Dec 2013 6:28 AM IST
The zone has raised tensions, particularly with Japan and South Korea, and is likely to dominate the agenda of a visit to Asia this week of US Vice President Joe Biden. He will travel to Japan, China, and South Korea and try to ease tensions, senior American officials said.
However, China’s declaration of the zone also represents a historic challenge by the emerging world power to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades.
China published co-ordinates for the zone last weekend. The area, about two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom, covers most of the East China Sea and the skies over a group of uninhabited islands at the center of a bitter territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.
Beijing wants all foreign aircraft passing through the zone, including passenger planes, to identify themselves to Chinese authorities.
On Friday, the United States said it expected US carriers to operate in line with so-called notices to airmen issued by foreign countries, although it added that the decision did ‘not indicate US government acceptance of China’s requirements.
A spokesman for Delta Airlines said it had been complying with the Chinese requests for flight plans for the past week. American and United said separately that they were complying, but did not say for how long they had been doing so.
Airline industry officials said the US government generally expected US carriers operating internationally to comply with notices issued by foreign countries.
In contrast, Japanese carriers ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines have flown through the zone without informing China, under an agreement with the Tokyo government. Neither airline has experienced problems.
The airlines said they were sticking with the policy even after Washington’s advice to its carriers.
Any sign that the United States was even tacitly giving a nod to China’s air defense zone would disturb Tokyo, which is hoping for a display of solidarity when Biden visits Japan starting on Monday.
‘We will have in-depth talks about it,’ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quoted as saying by Japan’s Kyodo news agency. ‘Japan and the United States will address it in close co-ordination with each other.’
However, he also insisted that the United States had not advised its airlines to comply with Chinese demands for prior notice before their planes enter the new air defense zone.
‘We have confirmed through diplomatic channels that the US government didn’t request commercial carriers to submit flight plans,’ he was quoted as saying in the Kyodo report.
And Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera insisted the allies were working in lockstep. ‘I believe the US government is taking the same stance as the Japanese government,’ he said.
However, China’s declaration of the zone also represents a historic challenge by the emerging world power to the United States, which has dominated the region for decades.
China published co-ordinates for the zone last weekend. The area, about two-thirds the size of the United Kingdom, covers most of the East China Sea and the skies over a group of uninhabited islands at the center of a bitter territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo.
Beijing wants all foreign aircraft passing through the zone, including passenger planes, to identify themselves to Chinese authorities.
On Friday, the United States said it expected US carriers to operate in line with so-called notices to airmen issued by foreign countries, although it added that the decision did ‘not indicate US government acceptance of China’s requirements.
A spokesman for Delta Airlines said it had been complying with the Chinese requests for flight plans for the past week. American and United said separately that they were complying, but did not say for how long they had been doing so.
Airline industry officials said the US government generally expected US carriers operating internationally to comply with notices issued by foreign countries.
In contrast, Japanese carriers ANA Holdings and Japan Airlines have flown through the zone without informing China, under an agreement with the Tokyo government. Neither airline has experienced problems.
The airlines said they were sticking with the policy even after Washington’s advice to its carriers.
Any sign that the United States was even tacitly giving a nod to China’s air defense zone would disturb Tokyo, which is hoping for a display of solidarity when Biden visits Japan starting on Monday.
‘We will have in-depth talks about it,’ Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was quoted as saying by Japan’s Kyodo news agency. ‘Japan and the United States will address it in close co-ordination with each other.’
However, he also insisted that the United States had not advised its airlines to comply with Chinese demands for prior notice before their planes enter the new air defense zone.
‘We have confirmed through diplomatic channels that the US government didn’t request commercial carriers to submit flight plans,’ he was quoted as saying in the Kyodo report.
And Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera insisted the allies were working in lockstep. ‘I believe the US government is taking the same stance as the Japanese government,’ he said.
Next Story
