Pakistan grants Taiwanese airlines overflight access through March 2027

Pakistan has authorised Taiwanese carriers EVA Air and China Airlines to use its airspace for passenger and cargo flights, according to Civil Aviation Authority documents reported by the Associated Press on October 29. The permissions, dated October 28, cover the period from that date until March 27, 2027. AP's account identifies the two airlines and the operating window. It does not establish that a particular aircraft has already used the newly authorised access. Business Recorder, citing Bloomberg and flight-tracking data, reported that EVA Air Flight 65 from Taipei to Vienna crossed Pakistan at about 3:30am local time on October 29. It said some other Europe-bound flights continued to avoid the country. These are attributed operational reports, not an independently audited count of all affected flights. The AP documents did not themselves explain the earlier reported restriction. Business Recorder reported that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif had earlier linked the policy to Pakistan's One-China position. That attributed statement should be distinguished from speculation about private diplomatic bargaining or an explanation contained in the new permits. Overflight permission concerns passage through national airspace. It should not be described as permission to launch scheduled passenger services to a Pakistani airport, a new bilateral air-service agreement or a change in diplomatic recognition. Those are separate decisions and are not established by the reported documents. For airlines, the relevant operational details include the dates, carriers and types of flights covered. The permission alone does not establish how many flights will use the route or whether an individual journey will become shorter or cheaper. Those outcomes require flight schedules and routing information rather than an inference from access being available. The development is of interest to Pakistani readers because it concerns the country's role in international aviation routes. The reported end date also means the approval is a defined operating window, not evidence of an indefinite entitlement. Until officials provide a fuller account, the narrow confirmed development is the reported authorisation for two carriers. Claims about political bargaining, the reason for an interruption or a measurable commercial benefit should remain distinct from that documented access decision. Sources: www.arabnews.pk · www.brecorder.com An EVA Air aircraft at Hong Kong International Airport in 2013; archival airline context, not a flight through Pakistan during the October 2026 approval period. Resized for publication. Photograph: Crisco 1492 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.