Airline representatives and Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) officials are scheduled to meet on Monday to discuss rules and principles governing allocation of regular cross-strait flights.
Whether cash-strapped Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT) would be able to take part in the flights is also a focus of public attention.
Following the third round of cross-strait negotiations in Nanjing last week, Taiwan and China agreed to a total of 270 regular cross-strait flights per week.
As such, the nation’s five airlines must share 135 flights departing from Taiwan each week. China now has six new cities on its list of destinations: Hefei in Anhui Province; Harbin in Heilongjiang; Nanchang in Jiangxi; Guiyang in Guizhou; Ningbo in Zhejiang; and Jinan in Shandong.
Taiwan has capped the number of flights to Taipei’s Songshan Airport to 21 per week, while China has restricted the number of weekly flights to Shanghai to 28 per week. China also limited the number of weekly flights to Beijing, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Kunming and Chengdu.
CAA director general Lee Lung-wen (李龍文) said yesterday that although the CAA had suspended FAT from operating international flights, FAT still has an airline company license and is entitled to participate in the discussions.
“We will still invite the company to voice its opinions on the flight distribution, but do not guarantee that it will be granted the right to share these flights,” Lee said
The company still owes the CAA aircraft landing and departure fees, for which the company has already been given one payment extension.
The deadline for FAT to pay the fees is May 16.
“There is not much leeway in the law to give the company a second extension,” Lee said.
The Taipei District Court yesterday also approved FAT’s application to restructure its finances, provided the company does not use the approval as an excuse to ask for another extension.
Lee outlined the factors that would affect cross-strait flight allocation, including the carrier’s fleet of aircraft and its operational plan.
Lee added that the CAA would also use a strategy of “tying the fat meat with the lean” (肥肉綁瘦肉) as an incentive, in which an airline company would be granted one profitable route if it is willing to take another less profitable route.
Those that fit into the “less profitable” category are all domestic routes, including those to Hualien, Taitung, Hengchun and Pingtung.
Although ticket prices are determined by market supply and demand, Lee said the CAA has “administrative measures” that can regulate cross-strait ticket prices.
Many passengers traveling between Taiwan and China have complained that the prices for cross-strait flights are too expensive and have asked carriers to reduce prices.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
ANNUAL EVENT: Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in Daan Park, with an event zone operating from 10am to 6pm This year’s Taipei Floral Picnic is to be held at Daan Park today and tomorrow, featuring an exclusive Pokemon Go event, a themed food market, a coffee rave picnic area and stage performances, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said yesterday. Two massive Pokemon balloons are to be set up in the park as attractions, with an exclusive event zone operating from 10am to 6pm, it said. Participants who complete designated tasks on-site would have a chance to receive limited-edition souvenirs, it added. People could also try the newly launched game Pokemon Pokopia in the trial area, the department said. Three PokeStops are
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
RSS