The Civil Aeronautics Adminis-tration (CAA) said yesterday that it has approved Uni Air's (立榮航空) application to cancel all of its flights between Taipei and Kaohsiung, effective from March.
Four domestic airliners jointly provide 22 daily flights between Taipei and Kaohsiung. Uni provides two round-trip flights a day.
CAA deputy director-general Lin Shinn-der (
"[Uni's decision] is the result of free market competition," he said.
This would be the third approval for flight cancellations issued by the CAA since last year when Mandarin canceled its Taipei-Taichung flight in August and Uni canceled its Taipei-Chiayi route in October.
Lin said yesterday that passenger loads on all domestic flights along the west coast have declined since the high speed rail began operation in March last year.
Lin said that Uni applied to withdraw the Taipei-Kaohsiung flight last month, and the company originally planned to stop operations starting on the 15th of next month, but the CAA asked the company to start canceling flights in March instead, he said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) approved the application last week, Lin said.
The administration also issued a statement yesterday saying that the company had tried in September to offer a 50 percent discount for passengers on the Taipei-Kaohsiung flight. The move, however, failed to help Uni win back enough lost customers to continue the route.
Last month, the company had 9,890 passengers taking the Taipei-Kaohsiung flights, which was only 14.7 percent of the total for the same period a year earlier.
The company suffered an accumulated loss of NT$104 million (US$3.15 million) for operating the Taipei-Kaohsiung flight last year.
On the west coast, Uni still has the right to operate flights between Taipei and Hengchun (
Lin said the administration has determined that Uni's withdrawal will have only a slight impact on passenger transportation.
To protect the interests of air passengers, Lin said the administration has asked the company to inform customers about the upcoming change.
Passengers are also entitled to ask for a full refund of the tickets without any additional processing fees.
Lin confirmed yesterday that Mandarin Airlines has recently applied to suspend flights between Taichung and Taitung while Far Eastern has also requested an end to its Taipei-Tainan flights.
The MOTC has yet to approve the applications, he said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS