In addition to its flights to Shanghai and Shenzhen, Taichung’s Chingchuankang Airport will soon offer a weekly flight to Beijing, an official said on Friday.
“Once the program to expand cross-strait flights starts in July or August, the airport in central Taiwan will also offer one flight to Beijing each week in addition to Shanghai and Shenzhen [flights],” Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director-General Lee Lung-wen (李龍文).
Lee was responding to concerns that Taichung was losing out in the competition to handle direct flights to China.
“Talks with Taiwan’s carriers on arranging a weekly flight from Taiwan’s third-largest city, Taichung, to Beijing will start next week,” Lee said in response to complaints from legislators who represent districts in central Taiwan that Taichung was being left out.
About 5 million people, or 21 percent of the country’s population, live in central Taiwan, legislators said, adding that it was unfair to residents of the region that there were not enough direct flights between Taichung and China after non-stop charter flights were launched in July last year.
“It is normal that central Taiwan’s residents want more flights between Chingchuankang Airport and a larger number of Chinese destinations,” Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Tsang-min (林滄敏) said.
Although Taiwan is entitled to operate 135 cross-strait flights per week beginning this summer based on an accord reached in April between the Straits Exchange Foundation and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, the legislators said Chingchuankang Airport had only been allotted five of those flights.
Responding to Lin’s requests, Lee said the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) had created a blueprint to build a terminal for larger airplanes and international flights at Chingchuankang Airport with the aim of serving 1.35 million passengers per year.
Under the project, the central government will earmark NT$3.9 billion (US$118.9 million) to build an international terminal at the airport.
Construction of the facility is scheduled to be completed by 2012, Lee said.
The CEPD plans to turn Chingchuankang Airport into a regional hub serving passenger flights and cross-strait routes.
It projected that the airport could serve at least 3.5 million passengers per year in the long term, Lee said.
Although Shanghai is one popular Chinese destination among Taiwanese carriers, Lee said earlier this week that none had applied to ply the Taichung-Shanghai route because the runways at Chingchuankang Airport can only accommodate smaller planes with a seat capacity of around 100 passengers.
Lee said that the CAA had asked Taiwanese carriers including China Airlines, EVA Airways and TransAsia Airways, all of which fly to Shanghai from either Taipei or Kaohsiung, to offer one flight per week each from Chingchuankang Airport to Shanghai.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
EARTHQUAKE: Taipei and New Taipei City accused a construction company of ignoring the Circular MRT’s original design, causing sections to shift by up to 92cm The Taipei and New Taipei City governments yesterday said they would seek NT$1.93 billion (US$58.6 million) in compensation from the company responsible for building the Circular MRT Line, following damage sustained during an earthquake in April last year that had shuttered a section for months. BES Engineering Corp, a listed company under Core Pacific Group, was accused of ignoring the original design when constructing the MRT line, resulting in negative shear strength resistance and causing sections of the rail line between Jhonghe (中和) and Banciao (板橋) districts to shift by up to 92cm during the April 3 earthquake. The pot bearings on
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
RSS