The Ministry of Transportation and Communications would strictly review Far Eastern Air Transport’s (FAT) explanation for its unexpected partial suspension of flights on Thursday, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday, adding that a statement issued by the airline had left some questions unanswered.
“We received the airline’s statement after office hours on Friday. It did not give a clear explanation as to why the company suspended flight operations without prior notice, nor did it help resolve the problem,” Lin said in response to media queries on the sidelines of the groundbreaking ceremony for a new rest area along the National Sun Yat-sen Freeway (Freeway No. 1) in Taoyuan’s Yangmei District (楊梅).
The airline has not only financial problems, but also flight safety issues, Lin said.
Photo: Lee Jung-ping, Taipei Times
The ministry would follow the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) in fining the airline and ordering it to repair the damage it caused, he said.
As to whether the carrier would be allowed to resume operations and whether the ministry would heed the Civil Aeronautics Administration’s (CAA) recommendation that it revoke FAT’s air operator certificate, Lin said it would handle the matter in accordance with the law.
As the airline has suspended its operations, the ministry would execute an emergency response plan to ensure that travelers face no problems before and after the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Jan. 24, he said.
“We thank other airlines for being willing to offer more flights and use larger aircraft to carry travelers. We also hope that FAT’s management will take action to enforce aviation safety measures and protect consumers. It is irresponsible for the airline to cancel flights without warning the public in advance. We will follow the procedures in scrutinizing the airline’s plan to resume operations,” he added.
The CAA on Friday confirmed that it had recommended that the airline be fined NT$3 million (US$98,954) for contravening the act, adding that it has sent its suggestion to the ministry for approval.
Based on administrative procedures, the airline should be given an opportunity to speak.
CAA officials are to convene today to review FAT’s explanation.
FAT chairman Chang Kang-wei (張綱維) held a news conference on Friday, saying that the airline had to halt its operations after it failed to secure funds in time.
Chang denied that the company had difficulty paying its employees and that it would cease operations soon.
He is in talks with more than three groups of potential investors, he said, adding that NT$1 billion would arrive in two weeks.
Regarding a notice that the company sent on Thursday morning saying that it would cease operations and start giving severance pay to its employees, Chang said some employees had misjudged the situation and sent the notice by mistake.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
RSS