The launch of regular cross-strait flights led to an increase in the total number of passengers, but the average occupancy rate has reached only slightly more than 60 percent, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
Taiwan and China launched regular cross-strait flights at the end of August following the third-round of cross-strait talks earlier this summer. The two agreed to provide a total of 270 cross-strait flights per week. CAA Deputy Director General Wang Te-ho (王德和) said yesterday that between Aug. 31 and Nov. 1, Taiwan’s airliners operated a total of 1,118 cross-strait flights, whereas Chinese airlines offered 1,142 flights.
The number of cross-strait flights offered each week varied between 253 and 258 flights, Wang said.
CAA statistics show that cross-strait flights carried a total of approximately 700,000 passengers, with the occupancy rate reaching 62.7 percent.
Wang said, however, that the number of cross-strait flight passengers had shown steady growth each week.
He said the average was about 46,000 each week when there were only daily charter flights. The number jumped to 78,000 per week after regular cross-strait flight service began.
“What we wanted to focus on was the trend in the market.” Wang said. “We can expect the market to grow if the curve continues to go upward.”
The CAA statistics also generated other findings. Flights to Songshan had the highest average occupancy rate, at 70 percent, followed by those to Taichung Airport and Taoyuan Airport. In China, Fuzhou topped Shanghai, with the highest average occupancy rate, at 78.8 percent, CAA statistics showed. Flights to Shanghai showed an occupancy rate of 75.8 percent, the statistics showed.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to
Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) yesterday apologized after the suicide of a civil servant earlier this month and announced that a supervisor accused of workplace bullying would be demoted. On Nov. 4, a 39-year-old information analyst at the Workforce Development Agency’s (WDA) northern branch, which covers greater Taipei and Keelung, as well as Yilan, Lienchiang and Kinmen counties, was found dead in their office. WDA northern branch director Hsieh Yi-jung (謝宜容), who has been accused of involvement in workplace bullying, would be demoted to a nonsupervisory position, Ho told a news conference in Taipei. WDA Director-General Tsai Meng-liang (蔡孟良) said he would
RSS