The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) yesterday approved an application by Mandarin Airlines to pull the plug on its flights between Taichung and Hualien.
The airline can halt operations on this route from Sept. 15, the administration said.
Mandarin is currently the only operator on this route. Statistics compiled by the CAA show that the number of passengers traveling between the two cities has declined gradually since 2006.
In 2006, the route had an average of 7,236 passengers per month. The number dropped to 5,518 last year. From January until last month, it dropped further to 4,267.
Uni Air last week temporarily suspended charter services on the Kaohsiung-Guangzhou route — less than two months after cross-strait weekend charter flights were launched.
Uni Air’s flight was the only cross-strait charter flight connecting southern Taiwan and China.
Taipei-based carrier Uni Air said it was halting services on the route because of low passenger numbers. Uni Air officials said the average passenger load on flights from Kaohsiung to Guangzhou was about 70 percent, but on return flights the load was around 40 percent to 50 percent.
In response to Uni Air’s decision, Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to fulfill his campaign promise of making Kaohsiung “the entry point” for Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
Chen said that the central
government should take the balance of regional development into account when negotiating future direct charter flights with China.
She said the city was still looking forward to having Chinese tourists arrive in Kaohsiung.
“Market mechanisms are not the only factor influencing direct cross-strait charter flights. I believe China also has its own national interests in mind [when determining the routes],” she said.
Chen said the central government could not accuse local governments of failing to make the necessary effort to attract more cross-strait charter services.
Her comment follows Premier Liu Chao-shiuan’s (劉兆玄) criticism in June that the Kaohsiung City Government had not worked hard enough to fight for more charter flights.
“The Kaohsiung City Government is willing to make joint efforts with local tourism businesses [to increase direct charter flights],” she said. “But what’s more important is that the Straits Exchange Foundation should seek to realize President Ma’s campaign platform when negotiating with the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait by getting some 3,000 Chinese tourists to visit Taiwan every day.”
Chen said that as far as Kaohsiung was concerned, the number of visitors from China remained very limited.
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