The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) is to make a decision on whether to close Hengchun Airport in Pingtung County in the second half of next year, given the airport’s extremely low passenger rate, CAA Director-General Lin Tyh-ming (林志明) said yesterday.
Lin said the Pingtung County Government has commissioned a feasibility study to assess the possibility of using the airport for international charter flights, the results of which are to be released in the second half of next year.
By that time, the CAA will have made a decision on whether to close or maintain the airport, he said.
Hengchun Airport was opened in 2004 with the aim of boosting tourism to the southern resort town of Kenting (墾丁).
However, because of its short runway, the airport can only be used by small aircraft, most of which have only 72 seats. Flights are also often canceled due to down drafts.
Because of this, the number of passengers using the airport has been in decline, especially since the launch of the high-speed rail service in 2007. The number of airline companies operating services to the airport has also decreased from three to one.
According to CAA statistics, while there were more than 23,000 passengers between Taipei and Hengchun (恆春) — the only flight route to Hengchun Airport — in 2004, the number dropped to about 11,000 in 2006 and about 2,448 in 2011.
Last year there were 768 passengers. In August last year there were two flights with 21 passengers. The route has not seen a single flight or passenger since September last year.
Tourism industry insiders in Pingtung have proposed that the airport runway be lengthened to allow larger-sized aircraft to land and start flight services to and from China.
The Pingtung County Government said it is confident that it can attract more passengers to Hengchun Airport if the Ministry of Transportation and Communications were to expand the airport’s facilities and change the direction of its runway to reduce risks posed by down drafts.
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