TransAsia Airways (復興航空) yesterday launched its direct charter flight service to Dalian in China’s Liaoning Province, marking the nation’s first flight to northeastern China.
The company also hosted a ceremony in celebration of the pilot flight at the Taipei Songshan Airport yesterday morning.
“Dalian is the gateway to the three provinces in China’s northeast region,” said Tien Ti (田地), TransAsia’s general manager, “It is the home of more than 1,200 Taiwanese companies, with a majority of them being in the information technology industry. It is also known for its tourism resources.”
PHOTO: HSU CHAO-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Dalian Deputy Mayor Dai Yulin (戴玉林), who arrived on Saturday on a Hainan Airlines charter flight, also attended the ceremony yesterday. Dai had been to Taiwan twice previously.
“Each time, it took about 10 hours to arrive, including the time spent on flights and transferring, which is really tiring and troublesome,” he said. “This time it took only three hours.”
Dai said a Dalian travel agency was expected to be approved by the government soon to start organizing tour groups to Taiwan. The direct charter flight service will make it easier for people in Dalian to visit Taiwan, he said, adding that he estimated the first tour group from Dalian would arrive before the Lunar New Year.
Currently, TransAsia only offers a round-trip charter flight to Dalian each Sunday. The flight is scheduled to leave for Dalian at 8am every Sunday and return to Taipei at 4pm on the same day.
For now, the company said that the charter flight’s passengers were mainly travelers heading to northeastern China, but that it was tapping into the market of Chinese tourists.
Aside from TransAsia, Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) also launched its pilot flight from Taichung to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province yesterday.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that Shanghai remained the most popular destination among the nation’s airlines, with charter flights topping 41 per week. It is followed by Hangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, with weekly charter flights to both cities totaling 14 and 13 respectively.
In related news, the Tourism Bureau is scheduled to announce this week new regulations governing the management of Chinese tourists.
Significant changes include reducing the minimum number of tourists needed to make a tour group from 10 to five and increasing the travel days from a maximum of 10 days to 15 days.
‘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 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
RSS