People going abroad during the Lunar New Year holiday are advised to arrive at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport three hours earlier than their departure time due to the seasonal increase in travelers, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday.
The company estimates that the number of travelers accessing the airport during the nine-day holiday would exceed 150,000 per day, while the total passenger volume would rise by about 6 percent compared with the holiday period last year.
The busiest day would be on Sunday next week, the last day of the holiday, when the airport is to accommodate 785 flights, it said.
Photo: Wang Meng-lun, Taipei Times
Several Taiwanese airlines have announced that their counters would open early.
Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航) said that travelers boarding flights between Saturday and Friday next week should start checking their luggage three hours before departure.
China Airlines (華航) said it would give passengers 500 mileage points if they use the company’s online check-in system or self-service check-in machines at the airport to complete preboarding procedures from Friday until Feb. 28.
EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and Uni Air (立榮航空) announced that until Feb. 17, counters at the airport would open at 4:15am, while check-in would close 60 minutes before departure, rather than 40 minutes.
The airlines also advised passengers to check in online, adding that they can do so 48 hours to one-and-a-half hours before departure.
Passengers can obtain their boarding passes at self-service machines after they arrive at the airport.
Airport staff would face a tremendous challenge during the holiday due to the increase in flights and enhanced carry-on luggage inspection to prevent the spread of African swine fever, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Chi Wen-chung (祁文中) said during an inspection at the airport.
Officials from customs, the Civil Aeronautics Administration and the Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine are charged with airport control and would do their best to contain the disease, Chi added.
Several major projects to expand airport capacity are to finish or begin this year, TIAC said.
Terminals 1 and 2 have a combined capacity of 32 million passengers per year, but passenger volume rose by 3.69 percent to 46.53 million last year, the company said.
TIAC statistics showed that the airport’s cargo volume increased by 2.3 percent to 2.32 million, while the number of aircraft accessing the airport rose by 4 percent to 256,069.
Eleven regular flight services were last year added to the airport’s operations, including to Brunei, Ontario International Airport in California and Cheongju International Airport in South Korea.
The Terminal 2 expansion project is to finish in the first half of this year and increase the terminal’s capacity by 5 million passengers per year, while construction of Terminal 3 is scheduled to begin in September and finish by 2023.
New two-way taxiways that could accommodate two Airbus 380 aircraft simultaneously are to begin trial operations before the end of this year, the company said.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
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