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CAA approves Mandarin plan to drop flights

The Civil Aeronautics Administra-tion (CAA) yesterday said it had approved Mandarin Airlines' application to cancel flights between Taipei and Taichung because of low passenger traffic starting on May 1.

A CAA statement showed that Mandarin Airlines suffered a loss of more than NT$45 million (US$1.41 million) last year.

The start of the trial operation of the high speed rail in January further contributed to its woes, with its passenger load factor dropping to 20 percent. When the high speed rail began full operations last month, its load factor fell further to 11.6 percent.

On average, each passenger jet carried only 7.5 people.

Mandarin Airlines filed an application to drop the Taipei to Taichung route last October, but was turned down by the CAA.

The CAA said then that because the high speed rail had yet to start operating, it was hard to determine the service's impact on the airline industry.

Besides the high speed rail, competition from other modes of transportation has also made life hard for airline operators, the CAA statement said.

For example, freeway buses that ply this route can make the trip in under two hours. Bus operators also provide more frequent services and lower prices, at NT$240 one way.

The Taiwan Railway Administration's express trains can transport passengers from Taipei to Taichung in 108 to 129 minutes.

A one-way trip costs NT$375.

While a Taipei-Taichung flight only takes 50 minutes, the ticket charge for a one-way trip is NT$1,342.

Moreover, compared to the high speed rail, which has its station in Wujih (烏日), the airport in Taichung is far from the city center.

Earlier, the CAA had agreed to allow Uni Air to cut its daily flights between Taipei and Chiayi from two to one.

Uni Air canceled its services between Taipei and Taichung in 2004.

CAA Vice Director Wang Te-ho (王德和) said yesterday that other domestic flights departing from Taichung, including to Hualien, Taitung and Hengchun (恆春) and other islets near Taiwan, would be unaffected.

Asked whether the CAA's approval of Mandarin Airlines' application would encourage more airlines to cancel unprofitable routes, Wang said the administration has to focus on how to make the best use of all aviation resources, rather than considering the profitability of any one airline company.

"Neither will the airline companies propose to cancel flights without a reasonable basis," Wang said.

Wang added that the administration was thinking of new incentives to encourage airlines to continue their services to Pingtung.
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