ANA, JAL fly through 'China zone' sans notice

[TOKYO] ANA and Japan Airlines (JAL), the nation's largest carriers, flew through a new Chinese air-defence zone without notifying the country after Japan asked airlines to stop giving flight information to China.

ANA's flight from Tokyo touched down in Taipei at 1.11pm Japan time, Yoichi Uchida, a spokesman for the company, said yesterday. JAL's flight from Osaka touched down in Taipei at 12.24pm, Kazunori Kidosaki, an airline spokesman, said.

Japan's government on Tuesday told its domestic airlines to stop providing flight information to China, which has mandated planes to give details when flying through the new zone it created.

Japan has denounced the creation of the area and the US military flew two unarmed B-52 bombers into the area, which includes a chain of islands in the East China Sea that Japan purchased in September 2012, leading to a flare-up in tensions and a slump in tourism.

"The Chinese and Japanese governments are playing a game of chicken," said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research in Tokyo. "The government said no to reporting and the airlines had a choice of ignoring it or going around and they took the decision to comply."

China has the ability to effectively manage and control the air-defence zone, Defence Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said, according to a statement posted on the ministry website. The US planes' flight along the zone was under Chinese military surveillance, according to the statement.

Peach Aviation, a low-fare affiliate of ANA, also flew through the area from Osaka and reached the gate in Taipei at 11.16am Japan time, a spokesman for the carrier said yesterday.

ANA and JAL on Tuesday said separately that they are reversing an earlier decision and will stop reporting flight plans for planes travelling through the new Chinese zone from yesterday.

Shares of JAL fell 0.8 per cent to 5,150 yen at the close of Tokyo trading, declining for a ninth consecutive day. ANA was unchanged at 208 yen.

The carriers shifted their stance on instructions from The Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan, the airlines' trade group that acted as an intermediary between the airlines and Japan's Civil Aviation Bureau, an ANA spokeswoman said.

The US military flew the two B-52 bombers into the zone without any incident, according to a US defence official.

China announced the air-defence identification zone effective from Nov 23 and said that its military would take "defensive emergency measures" if aircraft enter the area without reporting flight plans or identifying themselves.

"Japan is our most important ally in the region," Caroline Kennedy, the US ambassador to Japan, said in a speech in Tokyo yesterday. "This relationship has underwritten the peace, security and prosperity of the Asia-Pacific region for more than six decades. Disputes should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue and we are ready to assist in this process anyway we can."

The disputed islands, known as Diaoyu in Chinese and Senkaku in Japanese, lie inside the new air-defence zone. Both nations claim sovereignty over the area, whose waters are rich in oil, natural gas and fish.

The dispute comes as China and Japan seek a greater role in the region, courting nations in South-east Asia.

The information that ANA had been supplying to China was the same shared with other countries, according to a spokesman for the Tokyo-based carrier. The data included planes' route, cruising altitude and flight time, he said.

Other countries' carriers are awaiting government guidance.

"There has been no change to our operations," Lee Hyo Min, a spokeswoman for Seoul-based Asiana Airlines, said on Tuesday. "We have not yet provided any flight plans to China on services that pass through the zone because there has been no guideline from the government. We will make changes if and when the government revises this guidelines."

Cathay Pacific, the Hong Kong- based carrier, said that its flight operations are normal.

The creation of the zone has not affected operations of commercial flights so far, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said in an e-mailed response to Bloomberg News.

"Some airlines have had to take some extra steps at the moment, such as filing flight plans manually," Iata said. "We are trying to get more details from the Chinese authorities to clarify ongoing operational requirements."

The announcement of the zone follows a decision by Communist Party leaders this month, after a meeting led by President Xi Jinping, to form a state committee to coordinate security issues as China broadens its military reach. - Bloomberg