Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT) resumed flight services yesterday after being grounded for two years because of financial problems.
The first flight leaving for Kinmen took off from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) at 9:30am.
FAT president Chang Kang-wei (張綱維) said at an inauguration ceremony that the airline would initially offer two daily flights between Taipei and Kaohsiung.
Photo: CNA
He said the company was planning to expand its flight services to Makong (馬公) and Kaohsiung and resume international flight services to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and to Palau.
Chang said the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) was planning to re-arrange cross-straight flight services either next month or in June, and FAT would be able to reclaim the 15 cross-strait flights previously reserved for the company before its services were suspended.
Those 15 cross-strait flights are currently shared equally by five other carriers — China Airlines, EVA Air, Uni Air, Mandarin Airlines and TransAsia Airways.
“The day we launch cross-strait flight services is the day we become profitable,” Chang said.
The CAA suspended FAT’s operations in 2008 because of financial problems and the airline’s management has changed several times since then.
The company filed a financial restructuring plan with the Taipei District Court, which approved the company’s plan in 2009.
Chang said many had doubted that the company would be able to start operations again.
“The CAA used the highest standards to examine our plan to resume flights and we also demanded the highest standards of ourselves,” Chang said, adding that the company would undertake quality maintenance and provide new services.
Chang, a property developer who took over FAT in July 2009, said the airline was funded entirely by his personal investment.
He added that the number of the staff had also grown from 40 to 500 under his leadership.
The company owns 10 aircraft, three of which have passed the CAA’s air worthiness test.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS