Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the nation’s main international gateway, could record 30 million passenger trips this year, surpassing a previous forecast of 28 million amid a recovery of the global aviation market, the airport’s operator said on Friday.
This year’s estimated passenger volume would be 66.6 percent of the volume recorded in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, Taoyuan International Airport Corp senior vice president Lee Chun-te (李俊德) said.
The airport recorded 21.88 million passenger trips in the first eight months of this year, which were 8.92 million outbound journeys, 8.83 million inbound journeys, 4.05 million transfers and 64,000 transits, Lee told a news conference.
Photo: Chen Hsin-yu, Taipei Times
That total is about 66.6 percent of the 2019 level, Lee said, adding that market demand during the past two months has seen a significant growth in flights connecting North America, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
However, air travel across the Taiwan Strait remained sluggish compared with other regions during the summer vacation, with passenger volume reaching only 1.43 million (including to Hong Kong and Macau), which is half the amount recorded during the same period in 2019, he said.
Boarding numbers should improve as Taiwan reopened its borders to some Chinese tourists entering from a third location on Sept. 1.
Chinese nationals living abroad, in Hong Kong or Macau can apply to enter Taiwan as tourists, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said last month.
The MAC’s announcement came as travel ties between Taiwan and China have been largely frozen over the past three years, partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
China’s government halted independent travel to Taiwan on Aug. 1, 2019, citing the poor state of cross-strait relations. It suspended group travel to Taiwan in 2020.
Meanwhile, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said on May 19 that Chinese travel agencies would be allowed to resume business involving Taiwan group tourists with immediate effect.
At the time, Taiwan declined to lift its restrictions on Chinese tourists entering, saying that Beijing was still restricting outbound travel to Taiwan, and that the decision should have been reached through bilateral negotiations.
In 2019, about 93,000 Chinese nationals living in a third location traveled to Taiwan as tourists, data from the National Immigration Agency showed.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS