The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is to make a decision on whether to close Hengchun Airport in Pingtung County in the second half of next year, given the airport’s extremely low passenger rate, CAA Director-General Lin Tyh-ming (林志明) said yesterday.
Lin said the Pingtung County Government has commissioned a feasibility study to assess the possibility of using the airport for international charter flights, the results of which are to be released in the second half of next year.
By that time, the CAA will have made a decision on whether to close or maintain the airport, he said.
Hengchun Airport was opened in 2004 with the aim of boosting tourism to the southern resort town of Kenting (墾丁).
However, because of its short runway, the airport can only be used by small aircraft, most of which have only 72 seats. Flights are also often canceled due to down drafts.
Because of this, the number of passengers using the airport has been in decline, especially since the launch of the high-speed rail service in 2007. The number of airline companies operating services to the airport has also decreased from three to one.
According to CAA statistics, while there were more than 23,000 passengers between Taipei and Hengchun (恆春) — the only flight route to Hengchun Airport — in 2004, the number dropped to about 11,000 in 2006 and about 2,448 in 2011.
Last year there were 768 passengers. In August last year there were two flights with 21 passengers. The route has not seen a single flight or passenger since September last year.
Tourism industry insiders in Pingtung have proposed that the airport runway be lengthened to allow larger-sized aircraft to land and start flight services to and from China.
The Pingtung County Government said it is confident that it can attract more passengers to Hengchun Airport if the Ministry of Transportation and Communications were to expand the airport’s facilities and change the direction of its runway to reduce risks posed by down drafts.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS