Pakistan on Wednesday allowed Taiwanese airlines to use its airspace until March 2027.

According to documents seen by Dawn, Taiwanese airlines China Airlines Ltd and Eva Airways Corp were granted permission to operate flights from Oct28 to March 27, 2027.

The development comes after Bloomberg reported that Islamabad had barred Taiwanese airlines from using its airspace in support of Beijing’s One-China policy.

“The aviation division follows the One China policy — only mainland China is allowed,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told Bloomberg News.

“We have permitted only Chinese airlines to fly over Pakistan,” he said.

Meanwhile, the report also cited flight-tracking data, which said that Taiwanese carriers began rerouting flights over the weekend, with both airlines no longer flying over Pakistan since the morning of Oct 25.

At least a dozen flights operated by the two airlines between Asia and Europe have flown over Russia since Sunday, according to Flightradar24 data.

According to the report, China Airlines and Eva Air declined to comment, while Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration did not comment on the rerouting. It said, however, that it had never banned carriers from flying over Russia.

Taiwanese airlines had avoided Russian airspace since February 2022, in line with many Asian, European and North American carriers, although they were never formally barred from using it, the report said.

Note: This story earlier stated that Pakistan had barred Taiwanese airlines from using its airspace due to Beijing’s One-China policy. It has been update to reflect recent information.