Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) yesterday said that lowering or stopping collection of an airport service charge did not make any sense, as the money is needed to improve airport services.
The idea of reducing the airport service charge was proposed by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津), who serves on the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed the budget for the Tourism Development Fund yesterday.
Yeh said a series of problems reported at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport recently, incidents involving ground service crews and the runways, were “an embarrassment.”
She also produced complaints made by employees of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Services Co who have had to work overtime. While the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) stipulates that the total amount of overtime worked cannot exceed 46 hours a month, the complainants said overtime sometimes reached as much as 91 hours.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration said the ground service company has been involved in five incidents this year. The latest occurred on Friday, when a TIAS luggage truck hit the belly of a China Airlines aircraft at the airport.
“The problems at the airport are too numerous to record,” Yeh said. “Railway passengers are refunded whenever trains are delayed and the ministry should consider suspending the collection of the airport service charge. If not, the service charge should be reduced. Customers should be treated fairly.”
Mao said the ministry would seek to determine whether the complaints are true.
The runways have already exceeded their service life, Mao said, adding that plans to renovate them were approved by the Council of Economic, Planning and Development last year.
“It [the project] is like a patient who has been sick for seven years and a doctor has attempted to treat the patient by applying medication for three years,” Mao said. “The airport service charge is levied around the world for the development of airports.”
“Now that the project has been activated, if we stop collecting the fee we will have no money to improve airport services,” he said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Luo Shu-lei (羅淑蕾) questioned why Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) is the chairman of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Co, adding that the company should instead try to recruit professional managers from overseas.
Mao said Yeh helped facilitate liaisons between the company and the ministry.
“It is difficult to find qualified professionals from abroad who will work for the salary we can offer,” he said.
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