Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is ranked No. 18 among the world’s top airports, down from No. 13 last year and its worst ranking in the past three years, the latest survey by UK-based consultancy Skytrax announced on Monday showed.
However, Taiwan was ranked No. 2 in terms of best airport immigration, up from No. 4 last year, No. 10 in best airport security, down from No. 8, and down two spots to No. 9 for best airport staff.
The Taoyuan airport was also ranked No. 8 for facilities available for people with reduced mobility, up one spot, but its baggage delivery service was down a notch to No. 8.
The nation failed to break into the top 10 in the categories of best airport shopping, best airport dining, best transit airports and cleanest airports.
Airports that made it to the top five in the overall ranking were, in first to fifth: Singapore Changi Airport — for the eighth consecutive year; Tokyo International Airport (Haneda); Doha’s Hamad International Airport; Incheon International Airport in South Korea and Munich Airport. Seven of the top 10 airports are in Asia.
The Taoyuan airport was ranked No. 8 in terms of best in Asia and No. 3 in airport serving 40 million to 50 million passengers annually.
Asked about the rankings, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said that many international organizations conduct airport evaluations, and Taoyuan has the potential to be in the top 10 in service quality, but the competition is fierce.
“We will review the results and see if there is anything we can do to improve,” he said.
Taoyuan International Airport Corp said that the number of passengers using the airport reached 48.69 million last year, and its passenger volume has exceeded the designed capacity of 37 million passengers since 2015.
It said it is spending more than NT$1.1 billion (US$36.76 million) to improve the airport’s facilities amid the drastic drop in usage because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the duty-free shops are renovating their facilities as well.
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its