Flights between Taipei and Kaohsiung will be maintained for another month, despite a request from Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) to halt the service.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has asked Mandarin Airlines to provide the service for at least one more month, until the end of next month, because demand for air travel in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties remains high, said CAA director-general Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) on Thursday, adding that “this is why the CAA has not approved the carrier’s request to halt the service.”
“Taipei-Kaohsiung flights will be maintained through September,” Lee said.
Seat occupancy on the Taipei-Kaohsiung route still averages around 50 percent, he said.
Meanwhile, Mandarin Airlines, the sole operator on the route, announced that from today it would only offer a single daily round-trip flight between the two largest cities in Taiwan, down from the previous 14 round-trip flights per week.
The number of flights on the Taipei-Kaohsiung route exceeded 100 per day during peak years, when it was the most profitable domestic route.
A Mandarin Airlines company executive said a passenger load factor lower than 60 percent makes it very difficult for a carrier to maintain operations.
Air travel on the western Taiwan corridor has been hard-hit by the high-speed train system that went into service in January last year.
In the face of competition from the bullet train, airlines have progressively cut the number of flights between Taipei and Taichung and between Taipei, Chiayi and Tainan.
In 1997, passengers took 18 million flights inside Taiwan, but the figure decreased to 8 million in 2006 and to 4 million last year, statistics show.
Industry sources predict that the number will drop even further this year.
In another development, UNI Airways Corp (立榮航空), which flies from Taipei to Pingtung and Hengchun, is considering canceling flights on the two routes. But Lee said the CAA would not allow the airline to stop flying the routes, out of fear that the local airports might be forced to close as a result.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
RSS