The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is expected to decide today whether to penalize Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT) for failing to improve its operational shortcomings within a grace period.
The shortcomings include its failure to cover monthly takeoff and landing fees for its airplanes, employees’ wages and other operational costs on time. Earlier this month, the company also unilaterally announced that it would temporarily suspend its operations without giving prior notice to the government and passengers.
The government had set a deadline of today for the company to improve its financial situation.
CAA Director-General Billy Chang (張國政) warned last week that the company could face penalties, including the suspension of its rights to operate part or all of its flight routes if it failed to meet the conditions by today.
The administration also has the authority to revoke the airline’s operational license, he said.
Last Friday, the administration gave China Airlines (CAL) the right to temporarily operate FAT’s Palau route.
CAL will launch charter flight services to Palau on Saturday. The temporary period of service is set to terminate on Aug. 27.
The administration has not yet canceled FAT’s rights to operate any of its routes.
Meanwhile, major shareholders of FAT — including CAL, Far Eastern Group, China Development Industrial Bank and Kuo Hua Life Insurance — were expected to inform the administration today whether they would increase their stakes in the company.
The key stakeholders unanimously declined to reveal whether they were willing to increase their investments when meeting with administration officials last week.
Last Monday, the company secured the court’s approval to extend crisis measures, which could result in protection from creditors for another three months.
Three of FAT’s directors resigned from the board last week after talks between the management and workers broke down.
FAT’s employees have not received paychecks from the company for almost two months, nor will they be eligible to receive reimbursement or unemployment subsidies from Taipei City’s Department of Labor until the company applies to cease its operations.
FAT’s financial crisis is the first thorny issue on new Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo’s (毛治國) plate.
“Shareholders must take the initiative to solve the financial problems before the ministry can assist them,” he said in a conference call with reporters on Wednesday. “Issues will arise if public resources are used to bail it out.”
FAT’s financial problems first came to light when it filed for bankruptcy protection with the Taipei District Court on Feb. 17. On May 12 it announced that the company would suspend all its operations the following day.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching