TransAsia Airways (復興航空) yesterday launched its direct charter flight service to Dalian in China’s Liaoning Province, marking the nation’s first flight to northeastern China.
The company also hosted a ceremony in celebration of the pilot flight at the Taipei Songshan Airport yesterday morning.
“Dalian is the gateway to the three provinces in China’s northeast region,” said Tien Ti (田地), TransAsia’s general manager, “It is the home of more than 1,200 Taiwanese companies, with a majority of them being in the information technology industry. It is also known for its tourism resources.”
PHOTO: HSU CHAO-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Dalian Deputy Mayor Dai Yulin (戴玉林), who arrived on Saturday on a Hainan Airlines charter flight, also attended the ceremony yesterday. Dai had been to Taiwan twice previously.
“Each time, it took about 10 hours to arrive, including the time spent on flights and transferring, which is really tiring and troublesome,” he said. “This time it took only three hours.”
Dai said a Dalian travel agency was expected to be approved by the government soon to start organizing tour groups to Taiwan. The direct charter flight service will make it easier for people in Dalian to visit Taiwan, he said, adding that he estimated the first tour group from Dalian would arrive before the Lunar New Year.
Currently, TransAsia only offers a round-trip charter flight to Dalian each Sunday. The flight is scheduled to leave for Dalian at 8am every Sunday and return to Taipei at 4pm on the same day.
For now, the company said that the charter flight’s passengers were mainly travelers heading to northeastern China, but that it was tapping into the market of Chinese tourists.
Aside from TransAsia, Mandarin Airlines (華信航空) also launched its pilot flight from Taichung to Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province yesterday.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration said that Shanghai remained the most popular destination among the nation’s airlines, with charter flights topping 41 per week. It is followed by Hangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province, with weekly charter flights to both cities totaling 14 and 13 respectively.
In related news, the Tourism Bureau is scheduled to announce this week new regulations governing the management of Chinese tourists.
Significant changes include reducing the minimum number of tourists needed to make a tour group from 10 to five and increasing the travel days from a maximum of 10 days to 15 days.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
RSS