Travelers can look forward to fewer flight delays after Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s south runway resumes operations on Thursday, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said.
The airport has been plagued by flight delays since Feb. 19 last year when TIAC closed the south runway for renovations, leaving only the north runway open for flight landings and departures and triggering complaints from airline companies and passengers.
TIAC chairman Yin Chen-pong (尹承蓬) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee in Taipei that renovations had been completed and the south runway’s length has been extended by 300m to 3,800m.
Since it has been upgraded to a Category II runway, Yin said the minimum visibility requirement could be lower than the one currently used.
Yin added that both the north and south runways would be open for operations during the Lunar New Year holiday this year.
However, renovations on the north runway are set to start in March, Yin said, adding that the runway is expected to resume operations before the Lunar New Year next year.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that with the opening of the south runway, he expects smoother flight operations.
“Last year, we only had the north runway, which sometimes had to be closed for workers to repair potholes,” Yeh said.
“The airport will have only the south runway operating after the Lunar New Year holiday, but it will offer better services than the north runway,” he said.
Yeh also told legislators that the ministry is scheduled to meet with Greater Taoyuan Government officials on Jan. 21 to discuss details of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis plan.
“The plan includes the airport and development of the land near the airport,” he said, adding that plans to build a third runway will not be changed.
However, land development in the surrounding area is to be carried out by the Taoyuan government, which is still re-evaluting the plan.
Yeh said that passenger traffic at the airport is growing rapidly and the construction of Terminal Three will take another six years.
He added that the airport is trying to expand the annual capacity of Terminal Two by 5 million passengers, with construction set to be completed in about two years.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS