Although the launch of direct flights between Taipei’s Songshan Airport and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport scheduled for today are expected to help boost Taipei City’s economy.
Taipei City Government has expressed high expectations that direct air links will provide closer connections and create more commercial opportunities for businesses on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
However, several taxi drivers working around Songshan Airport were less convinced about the benefits direct links would bring them.
PHOTO: CNA
One complained that even though there have been direct flights between Taiwan and China since July 2008, his business had not received a boost because Chinese tourists, who are still not allowed to travel alone, usually do not take taxis.
According to another, most Chinese tourists and businessmen are dropped off or picked up at the airport by relatives and friends or use the MRT system, adding that only those needing very short rides take taxis.
Another driver said there are 800 taxis operating around the airport, each of which making an average of just four or five trips per day, most of which cost about NT$100 each. The situation would not change much even after the direct flights are launched, he predicted.
Chen Ming-tsao (陳明灶), head of an airport taxi association, disagreed and said additional passengers would bring in more cash, especially as four more direct flights are to be added daily, each carrying between 180 and 200 passengers each.
Meanwhile, some passengers on the MRT’s Wenhu line linking Nangang, Neihu and Songshan, complained that the cars are too small.
A Taiwanese businessman operating in China said the line is convenient, but that the cars are too small for his luggage.
Others expressed concern that the line might not be able to handle the increased number of passengers between the two airports.
Chen Shih-hsiung (陳世雄), chief executive of a Taipei travel agency, said individual travelers are expected to benefit the most from direct air links.
Chen said that because Songshan Airport is only capable of accommodating medium-sized aircraft, such as the Boeing 738, which usually have 160 seats, travel agencies find it difficult to make block bookings for groups.
Songshan Airport maintains direct air links with seven Chinese cities and areas — Pudong, Fuzhou, Nanchang, Wuhan, Changsha, Chongqing and Chengdu.
Also See: Songshan real estate taking off
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods