Tom Huang (黃明智) is an engineer who works for a manufacturing firm in Taiwan. Every six months or so he is assigned to provide on-site technical support at his company’s operations in Suzhou and Changan, China.
“For those of us who have to travel to China frequently, cross-strait charter flights are certainly a welcome development,” he said.
Optimism from the business sector notwithstanding, the chaos sparked by the charter flights over the past two weeks has made some wonder whether they will be able to continue after the first week.
Although the government selected eight airports for the flights, both Taiwanese and Chinese airlines only showed interest in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei Songshan Airport. None wanted wanted Kaohsiung.
After a complaint from Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊), however, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) asked Uni Air for one round-trip flight between Kaohsiung and Guangzhou tomorrow.
TransAsia Airways would probably not have considered flying to the east coast if it were not for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Fu Kun-chi’s (傅崑萁) willingness to pay for a charter flight between Hualien and Xiamen.
The Taichung City Government also managed to have a Mandarin Airlines flight leave from Chingchuankang Airport to Xiamen, although the return flight will land at Magong in Penghu County.
The airlines’ lack of interest in the smaller airports was not the only issue facing the CAA. It was not able to finalize the flight schedules until this week because nearly all the Chinese airlines wanted to have at least one flight land at Songshan.
Songshan’s unexpected popularity has forced the CAA to tweak the airport’s time slots and to try to reduce the intervals between two arriving flights and between two departing flights from two hours to one-and-a-half hours.
Nanjing became one of the cross-strait charter flight airports after KMT Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) visited China in May, and Mandarin Airlines had planned a 3:30am charter flight from Taoyuan to Nanjing tomorrow. But on Monday the airline was forced to cancel the flight because it had failed to attract enough passengers.
Taiwan’s Taiwan Strait Tourism and Travel Association had asked China’s Cross-Strait Travel Association to have the six inaugural tour groups land at six different airports tomorrow, which was yet another challenge for the CAA.
However, all of tomorrow’s flights from China will now land at either Taoyuan or Songshan.
The final product of this chaotic process is a flight schedule determined mostly by politics rather than market mechanisms.
The hectic preparations have also made the Ministry of Transportation and Communications a target of lawmakers’ criticism.
KMT Legislator Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) said on Monday that planning on having eight airports opened in the initial stage had been wrong.
“Officials were afraid to speak the truth, even though they were not ready for such a plan,” he said.
KMT Legislator Justin Huang (黃健庭), who representing districts in Taitung, also accused the CAA of not doing enough to help local governments secure charter flights.
Earlier this week Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the KMT government was “overly optimistic” about the cross-strait charter flight service and should have evaluated market demand before it decided to open up certain airports.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said the charter flights were different from regular flights and could not be arranged by the government.
“Because these are inaugural flights, the government simply let them [the Chinese government] know our hope that the tourists could land at different airports,” he said.
The cross-strait charter flight service will also return Taipei Songshan Airport to its days as an international airport and gateway to the nation. But this has led to complaints that Songshan’s facilities are not up to the job.
The CAA completed its first-stage renovations of Taipei Songshan Airport on Monday
Mao said the ministry was considering reserving the airport’s first terminal for cross-strait passengers and the second terminal for domestic passengers.
Meanwhile, several people have expressed concern about the security of a section of the corridor to the custom, immigration and quarantine area at Songshan and fear the section could provide easy access to the domestic flight area to Chinese tourists.
Mao, however, said the problem could be resolved by setting up a cordon and adding extra security guards.
Taiwan would benefit from more integrated military strategies and deployments if the US and its allies treat the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea as a “single theater of operations,” a Taiwanese military expert said yesterday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said he made the assessment after two Japanese military experts warned of emerging threats from China based on a drill conducted this month by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command. Japan Institute for National Fundamentals researcher Maki Nakagawa said the drill differed from the
‘WORSE THAN COMMUNISTS’: President William Lai has cracked down on his political enemies and has attempted to exterminate all opposition forces, the chairman said The legislature would motion for a presidential recall after May 20, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday at a protest themed “against green communists and dictatorship” in Taipei. Taiwan is supposed to be a peaceful homeland where people are united, but President William Lai (賴清德) has been polarizing and tearing apart society since his inauguration, Chu said. Lai must show his commitment to his job, otherwise a referendum could be initiated to recall him, he said. Democracy means the rule of the people, not the rule of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but Lai has failed to fulfill his
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
A rally held by opposition parties yesterday demonstrates that Taiwan is a democratic country, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that if opposition parties really want to fight dictatorship, they should fight it on Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) held a protest with the theme “against green communists and dictatorship,” and was joined by the Taiwan People’s Party. Lai said the opposition parties are against what they called the “green communists,” but do not fight against the “Chinese communists,” adding that if they really want to fight dictatorship, they should go to the right place and face