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.
Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials including Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) are to be summoned for questioning and then transferred to prosecutors for holding an illegal assembly in Taipei last night, the Taipei Police said today. Chu and two others hosted an illegal assembly and are to be requested to explain their actions, the Taipei City Police Department's Zhongzheng (中正) First Precinct said, referring to a protest held after Huang Lu Chin-ju (黃呂錦茹), KMT Taipei's chapter director, and several other KMT staffers were questioned for alleged signature forgery in recall petitions against Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. Taipei prosecutors had filed
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
NEW WORLD: Taiwan is pursuing innovative approaches to international relations through economics, trade and values-based diplomacy, the foreign minister said Taiwan would implement a “three-chain strategy” that promotes democratic values in response to US tariffs, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said. Taiwan would aim to create a “global democratic value chain,” seek to capitalize on its position within the first island chain and promote a “non-red supply chain,” Lin was quoted as saying in the ministry’s written report to the Legislative Yuan submitted ahead of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee meeting slated for today. The Ministry would also uphold a spirit of mutual beneficial collaboration, maintaining close communication and consultations with Washington to show that Taiwan-US cooperation
Taiwan and the US have begun trade negotiations over tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump earlier this month, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said in an interview this morning before reporting to the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. The Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO), Taiwan’s de facto embassy in the US, has already established communication channels with the US Department of State and the US Trade Representative (USTR), and is engaging in intensive consultations, he said. Points of negotiation include tariffs, non-tariff trade barriers and issues related to investment, procurement and export controls, he
RSS