The high speed rail has dealt a heavy blow to domestic air traffic, reducing the number of air passengers by 22 percent compared with figures for the same period last year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
Ministry officials said there were approximately 119,000 domestic flights in the first six months of this year, down 13.72 percent from the 138,000 flights during the same period last year.
The number of air passengers on domestic routes totaled 6.72 million in the first six months of this year, down 22.14 percent from the 8.63 million the same period last year.
By comparison, the number of international flights totaled 95,820 during the first half of this year, up 3.36 percent over the figure for the same period last year.
The number of passengers on these international flights totaled 12.01 million, up 4.26 percent from the 11.52 million last year.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Duei (蔡堆) said the launch of the high speed rail service in early January had affected other transportation operators, especially domestic air carriers.
Taking consumer rights as well as the sustainable development of air carriers into consideration, the ministry has reviewed flight routes and numbers and begun working with the industry to promote package tours, he said.
Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Billy Chang (張國政) said a sluggish economy as well as convenient land transportation had affected domestic air carriers.
As the air carriers cannot allow their planes to lie idle, some have been forced to cut air fares to compete with the high speed rail, Chang said, adding that "this is not a good thing."
The railway has cut travel time between Taipei and Kaohsiung -- five hours on a regular train -- by more than half.
The high speed rail operates 45 round-trip runs daily, carrying about 50,000 passengers. It has transported 10 million passengers since its inauguration on Jan. 5.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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