Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) yesterday apologized for mishandling runway repairs at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport that resulted in two days of flight disruptions.
The airport on Sunday closed its southern 05R/23L runway for annual maintenance, leaving the northern runway the sole operational airstrip, causing more than 100 flight delays with at least 10 being rerouted.
When asked to report on the matter, Wang told a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee that he was sorry and an internal review has been launched to investigate the incident.
Photo: CNA
This year’s annual runway maintenance covered a larger area than usual, leading to longer suspensions of operations on the affected airstrip, he said.
State-owned Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) lacked vigilance and did not understand the implications of conducting repairs at 16 separate locations, Wang said.
The difficulties were foreseeable, and measures should have been taken to mitigate their impact and notify passengers of possible delays, he said.
When asked if passengers would be paid compensation, Wang said that TIAC is in the process of consulting with the affected travelers and that a decision would be made at a later time.
TIAC president and chief executive officer Fan Hsiao-lun (范孝倫) said standard procedures did not require passengers to be notified of runway repairs, with only airlines and pilots being informed.
One of the annual repairs conducted during the local outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic had taken 15 hours to complete, but it did not cause disruptions of the scale experienced this week, he said.
TIAC departments involved in the runway incident have been ordered to improve their performance, Fan said, adding that the airport’s northern runway would also need to be maintained later this year.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lu Ming-che (魯明哲) criticized the ministry and TIAC, saying that massive delays were an “absurd” outcome of routine repairs.
“This incident is worrisome because there could be other dangers that we do not know about,” Lu said.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) said responsible officials had flown to Japan to observe runway maintenance at Kansai International Airport as recently as late last year.
“What did that research trip achieve?” Lin asked.
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