Mandarin Airlines to link Taichung with central Japan

Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), one of the nation's four domestic air carriers, is scheduled to begin offering three-month-term charter flight services from Chingchungkang Airport in Taichung to Japan's Kansai International Airport from July 10, a company executive said yesterday.

The service is mainly aimed at taking passengers in central Taiwan to central Japan, where the 2005 World Exposition is taking place in Aichi Prefecture.

Yu Min-teh (余明德), director of Mandarin Airlines' Taichung operations, said the company hopes the Taichung-Kansai charter flight services will pave the way for regular charter flight services from central Taiwan to Japan in the near future.

Mandarin Airlines, an offshoot of China Airlines (華航), is even planning to launch charter flight services from Taichung to Vietnam if the Taichung-Japan charter flight operations are as successful as the Taichung-South Korea route, Yu noted.

Last October, Mandarin Airlines opened a regular charter flight line from Chingchungkang Airport to Seoul, marking the first international flight services available in central Taiwan.

This allowed passengers from the region to fly to Seoul without having to head first to Kaohsiung's Hsiaokang International Airport or CKS International Airport in Taoyuan.

The service is also expected to help attract Korean tourists to Taiwan and make Taichung the first stop of their Taiwan tours.