[Michael Cleary]

I spend about half my time in Taiwan these days, and I am now visiting Europe for a month.

Yesterday - 28 March - I travelled on flight BR87 from TPE to CDG. What was notable about this flight was the routing, as EVA cannot overfly China (negotiations are pending). I was wondering what way they might go, given that the advertised time is 13:55 for the non-stop flight.

My thinking was a loop down over Thailand then the usual route to Europe, but no, we went the other way!! A friend of mine had joked about a loop around North Korea, and he wasn't far wrong, for we departed TPE just after Midnight in a NNE direction, passing over Busan (South Korea), then east of Vladivostok, then over Khabarovsk, where the big turn left was made, taking the Great Circle routing from there, right up to the Arctic Sea, where the sea ice was visible, crossing the coast again east of Murmansk, thence down over Finland, Sweden etc.

The other odd thing (no doubt due to the latitudes) was that the sun rose about the time that we passed over Khabarovsk, and we stayed just ahead of it all the way to Paris, landing at 08:00 Paris time (elapsed time in the air was 13:50).

I travelled in Elite Class (aka Premium Economy), which was very comfortable, and far cheaper than others charge for their similar products (I paid in TWD, which worked out at AUD1890). The (B773ER) flight was full.

Will be interesting to see what route is taken on the return. I had looked on FlightRadar a few times a couple of weeks back and had seen BR88 (the return flight) over the Black Sea.