Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) yesterday said it was considering turning the disused Grand Hotel building near the airport into a terminal for low-cost carriers.
According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), 11 budget airlines already operate in Taiwan and two new ones — Singapore-based Scoot Airlines and Japan-based Peach Aviation — launched pilot flights last month and yesterday respectively.
At present, budget carriers account for about a 3 percent market share, lower than the Asia-Pacific region’s average, the CAA said.
TIAC president and CEO Samuel Lin (林鵬良) said that the business model for low-cost carriers — which increases the number of international passengers to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport — differs from regular carriers.
While the airport has adequate capacity to accommodate both low-cost carriers and regular carriers at its two terminals, Lin said the airport was considering differentiating the two types of carriers by giving the low-cost airlines their own terminal.
Lin said that the disused Grand Hotel, which is right across the street from Terminal One, was once used to provide the catering service for international flights. However, the building has not been used since the hotel stopped providing catering services in 1998.
“We are considering revitalizing the asset by turning it into a terminal for low-cost carriers,” Lin said. “The terminal would only be equipped with basic facilities for the airlines to operate.”
Lin said the TIAC had received complaints that the lines for low-cost flights were so long they had affected passengers on other carriers.
It was later discovered that the carriers were cutting costs by only opening one or two check-in counters, he said.
The company has requested that these carriers maintain their quality of service, Lin said.
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