Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) should speed up its recruitment and cultivation of talent and quickly expand the capacity of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s ground transit system to meet increasing service demand brought by an expected increase in passenger numbers in the next few years, aviation experts said on Tuesday at a forum organized by the airport operator.
The experts called for immediate action after the state-run company projected that the number of passengers accessing Taoyuan airport this year could exceed 30 million by the end of next month. That would be about 70 percent of the number recorded in 2019.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that the airport’s service capacity would expand from 37 million passengers per year to 82 million after its third terminal and third runway are competed in 2026 and 2030 respectively.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
While the Taoyuan Airport Forum focused on the use of smart technology and sustainable development at the airport, it also addressed challenges and opportunities for a future airport, as well as issues arising from innovative passenger services.
Civil Aviation Administration Director-General Lin Kuo-shian (林國顯) said that the number of passengers accessing Taoyuan airport plunged from 48.69 million in 2019 to 5.34 million in 2020, 908,000 in 2021 and 7.3 million last year.
“This year, we should be coming out of a curve to reach 30 million,” Lin said.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
Wong Jinn-tsai (汪進財), a transportation and logistics professor at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, said that TIAC should ensure that Taoyuan airport’s ground transit system has capacity for 82 million passengers.
“During peak hours, you cannot even find a seat on the Taoyuan airport MRT line. Instead of asking everybody to drive, which is not a sustainable move, the airport company should consider working with carpooling service providers,” Wong said.
Chunghwa Airport Council chairman Yin Cheng-pong (尹承蓬) said that TIAC has 600 employees, only half the number in some benchmark airports.
However, the company’s employees are expected to have the same workload as those at benchmark airports, Yin said.
To meet future challenges, the airport should organize exchanges with other hub airports in Asia and use resources from Airports Council International to train its employees, Yin said.
Taoyuan International Airport Corp CEO Fan Hsiao-lun (范孝倫) said that the company must address the issues of sustainability and green energy as they are irreversible trends.
The company has experimented with the use of self-driving cars at the airport, but increasing the use of sustainable aviation fuel needs cross-departmental cooperation, Fan said.
“We pay NT$50 million [US$1.55 million] per month for the electricity used in Terminals 1 and 2, so we have to start thinking about solar energy and other options for green power... People are worried that the flares caused by solar panels could affect aviation safety, but the problem can be solved with the advancement of modern technology,” he said.
Chaoyang University of Technology associate professor Lu Yen-liang (盧衍良) said airlines managed to survive during the COVID-19 pandemic because of their booming air cargo businesses.
However, unlike passenger servics, airlines are not required to pay Taoyuan airport a cargo service charge, Lu said.
Given that the company has listed a series of initiatives to make Taoyuan airport a smart and sustainable airport, it needs to reconsider the tariffs it charges airlines and whether they would cover funding for the initiatives, Lu said.
Lu also urged TIAC to offer services that would attract more air travelers to transfer in Taiwan.
(Taoyuan International Airport special report)
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS