Fog disrupts travel plans as airports close for night

Foggy weather brought widespread disruption to air services yesterday morning, local Chinese-language media reported.

CKS International Airport remained closed until 6am after heavy fog brought viability to a minimum. About 30 international and domestic flights were either delayed or canceled, trapping over 2,000 passengers at the airport.

EVA Airways flights to Los Angeles, Vancouver and Paris late Friday night were forced to take off half a day late, while two homebound airplanes returning from the US landed at Kaohsiung International Airport.

One woman passenger departing for Los Angeles complained that her flight, originally scheduled for 11:55pm on Friday night, was delayed to midday yesterday and that EVA Airways did not make the announcement until 3am.

"All the passengers were exhausted. Some of us didn't have a room at the CKS Airport Hotel until 6am," the woman said.

Meanwhile, both the Chiayi and Tainan airports were also forced to shut down yesterday morning, hampering air traffic on the north-south domestic flight path.

According to the Central Weather Bureau, fog may return in the next few days, especially in the west's coastal areas, leaving many airlines worried that flight delays and cancellations may make another appearance over the weekend.

Meanwhile, an electric tramcar system for passenger transportation between the first and second terminals of CKS Airport was officially launched yesterday.

Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-shan (林陵三), Vice Minister Yu Feng-lai (游芳來), Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Billy Chang (張國政), CKS Airport Terminal Director Wang Teh-ho (王德和) and other guests attended the inauguration ceremony.

The tramcar can ferry passengers between the two terminals in around 90 seconds and the service runs every two to four minutes during peak hours and every four to eight minutes during off-peak hours.

Passengers and airport staff will be able to use the transportation system free of charge.

Construction of the double-rail elevated passenger transportation system, which is 660m long and has four stops, began in 1997. It adopted a system provided by Japan's Nigata Engineering.

The system will be extended soon to connect with the planned third passenger terminal.