The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it would request that Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) deliver a special briefing to the legislature’s Transportation Committee tomorrow to explain how the Ministry of Transportation and Communications plans to handle the fallout from the decision to dissolve TransAsia Airways.
The airline’s decision to suspend flights for one day has inconvenienced and incurred losses for its customers, KMT caucus secretary-general Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Chiang questioned whether the government has a full grasp on the gravity of situation and if the ministry or the Civil Aeronautics Administration had received prior notice about the problems facing the airline.
Photo: CNA
“The committee is scheduled to review a budget plan proposed by Taiwan International Port Corp and the appropriation of port construction funds on Thursday [tomorrow],” he said. “We have asked the committee’s convener, KMT Legislator Chen Hsueh-sheng (陳雪生), to change the meeting’s agenda and invite the minister to deliver a special briefing on the TransAsia case.”
The airline has tried to pass responsibility to travel agencies and continues to sell tickets online, KMT Legislator Alicia Wang (王育敏) said, adding that it failed to give a 60-day notice required before a massive layoff.
Reports of the company’s financial problems had circulated in the airline industry for about six months, but the government appears to have been out of the loop, KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
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