Japan’s two largest carriers Japan Airlines and ANA have revealed they are flouting Chinese flight restrictions on services between Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and parts of southeast Asia.
Under pressure from their own government, the airlines are ignoring a new China air defence zone in the sky over a disputed chain of islands in the East China Sea, said the Financial Times.
Both JAL and ANA are refusing to comply with an order put out by China’s civil aviation authority on Saturday for all flights planning to pass through the zone to submit flight plans or risk unspecified "emergency defence procedures".
Initially the airlines did comply with the order, said the FT, but the Japanese government refused to accept the zone, which overlaps its own zone over a chain of islands. which Japan calls Senkaku and China calls Diaovu.
Today JAL and ANA announced they were no longer complying with China’s order and will operate daily flights between Japan and Taiwan and southeast Asia without advance notice to China.
US bombers also ignored the Chinese restrictions yesterday when they flew across the zone as part of a "long-planned training mission".
