Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday that the higher management of Taoyuan International Airport Service (TIAS) would be replaced if it fails to improve its service.
“We have ordered it [the company] to thoroughly review this incident. We will change persons [in management] if they cannot do it,” Mao said at a legislative Transportation Committee session, where lawmakers expressed concern about an incident on Wednesday when a TIAS luggage truck hit the belly of a China Airlines aircraft boarding passengers at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
Minister of Interior Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德), who were heading to an APEC ministerial meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, were among the passengers on the flight. China Airlines was forced to replace the aircraft because of the incident and the flight was delayed for about two hours.
“The officials on board now know from personal experience how terrible our national gateway is [being run],” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) said problems continued to emerge after the airport company was established last year. She asked why the company has yet to deliver solutions to these problems.
Mao said the ministry is scheduled to ask the TIAS to quickly convene a board meeting and evaluate the possibility of a personnel change, including the company’s chairman and general manager.
Noting that the company’s new general manager, Chang Yang (張揚), took office only in July, Mao added that Chang should be given a bit more time to execute reforms.
Mao reiterated that the ministry would no longer tolerate any mistakes by the company. He said he has asked the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to investigate Wednesday’s incident.
CAA Director General Yin Chen-pong (尹承蓬) said the administration is planning to give TIAS the maximum fine as prescribed by the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法), should its investigation show that the company was at fault in the incident. The maximum fine for violating regulations on ground service security is NT$300,000, he said.
Statistics showed that TIAS has already had five violations of the act this year, including the incident on Wednesday.
The company was first given a warning and was later fined a total of NT$380,000 for the previous violations.
The ground service company’s shareholders include China Airlines, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications and United Parcel Service (UPS). The airline is the company’s biggest stakeholder, with 49 percent of the shares. The ministry controls 45 percent of the company’s shares while UPS holds 6 percent of the shares.
In related news, dozens of flights at the airport were delayed yesterday because of a large pothole detected on the taxiway.
A China Airlines flight carrying former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), who was scheduled to attend the 2011 leaders summit of the APEC forum as an envoy of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), was delayed for more than 30 minutes.
“The pothole may have occurred because of days of heavy rain,” Yin said.
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