The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday it was prepared to handle matters related to cross-strait charter flights operating on weekends, adding that some technical issues remained.
MOTC Vice Minister Ho Nuan-hsuen (何煖軒) said the ministry’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) had drafted preparatory work plans for air transportation between China and Taiwan.
Ho refused, however, to disclose any details of the plans, saying that more needs to be done by the new government.
Ho made the comments at the legislature’s Transportation Committee meeting yesterday, where he faced questions from lawmakers about the nation’s preparedness for more frequent cross-strait charter flights.
Currently, cross-strait charter flights only run on national holidays, including the Lunar New Year, the Tomb-Sweeping Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Two weeks ago, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that a cross-strait charter flight service be offered starting in July.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) said in his meeting with vice president-elect Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) over the weekend that “we [Taiwan and China] will continue our negotiations over the possibility of weekend charter flights and cross-strait tourism.”
Sources within the CAA said yesterday that aside from Taoyuan International Airport, the administration had considered other domestic airports that have the capacity to accommodate cross-strait charter flights, such as Taichung, Taitung and Hualien.
Taipei’s Songshan Airport, on the other hand, may not be equipped to offer charter flights by July, as some of its infrastructure needs to be modernized.
The administration estimated that it would take about a year before Songshan Airport could be ready for the cross-strait charter flights.
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