As Taiwan and other nations begin to ease COVID-19 prevention measures for international travel, some airlines have said they plan to gradually resume services from Taiwan.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), on Wednesday said that flights between Taiwan and Vietnam would soon resume, as the Southeast Asian nation plans to allow entry to Taiwanese, as well as travelers from Japan, South Korea and Cambodia.
The CECC on Wednesday next week would announce regulations governing the arrival of business travelers, he said, adding that the center would still ask people to observe the 14-day quarantine requirement if they are planning a long stay.
Photo courtesy of StarLux Airlines
The center also said that it is in discussions with Taoyuan International Airport Corp about the possibility of separating transit passengers from those entering the nation, adding that a proposal would be deliberated at a meeting this week.
China Airlines said that it is planning two daily flights to Hanoi and another two to Ho Chi Minh City starting next month, adding that the plan is subject to change.
EVA Air still has passenger flights to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, but it said it might consider increasing the number of flights, depending on the outcome of negotiations between the nations.
Vietnam Airlines said that it is planning to have four weekly flights from Taipei to Ho Chi Minh City and three weekly flights from Taipei to Hanoi starting next month, and it would make similar arrangements for flights departing from Kaohsiung.
Vietnamese budget carrier VietJet Air said that it plans to have three weekly flights from Taipei to Hanoi and to Ho Chi Minh City starting next month, whereas Bamboo Airways said it would dispatch three weekly flights from Taipei to Hanoi and three from Kaohsiung to Hanoi.
StarLux Airlines said that next month it would start weekly flights between Taipei and Macau on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, but it is still suspending flights to Da Nang, Vietnam.
The carrier yesterday was to start service to Penang, Malaysia, but said it was waiting for the Malaysian government to publish new disease prevention measures before deciding when to make flights available.
StarLux is postponing flights to Cebu City, the Philippines, to Oct. 25, it said.
Dubai-based Emirates airline said that on Wednesday next week it would resume services between Taipei and Dubai, and passengers who need to transit through Dubai to Bahrain and 14 other cities in its network can also book their tickets on its Web site, but passengers must check quarantine requirements before making reservations.
Singapore Changi Airport yesterday began accepting transit passengers from Singapore Airlines and two subsidiaries — SilkAir and Scoot — departing from selected cities in Australia and New Zealand, and traveling to any destination in the airline’s group network.
Scoot’s agent in Taiwan said that it has yet to receive instructions for the resumption of services between Taipei and Singapore.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we