China Airlines would be taking over TransAsia Airways domestic air traffic rights, Minister of Transportation and Communications Hochen Tan (賀陳旦) said yesterday, adding that its rights to operate cross-strait flights would be reassigned to other carriers.
Hochen made the statement at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee. where Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) also fielded questions from lawmakers.
Legislators asked both men to clarify a statement made on Wednesday by Executive Yuan spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) that China Airlines is to take over all the routes operated by TransAsia, domestic and international.
Hochen said the government has assigned China Airlines TransAsia’s Taipei to Hualien and Taichung to Hualien routes, but that an operator for the Penghu to Kinmen route is still to be determined.
China Airlines would continue the operation of the two domestic routes as regular charter flights, he said.
However, TransAsia’s air traffic rights for cross-strait flights must be returned and reassigned to other carriers based on the rules governing the distribution of cross-strait flights, Hochen said.
“We understand that as we are asking China Airlines to take over these unprofitable domestic routes at such short notice we would urge it to also apply to operate the cross-strait flights and will handle their applications as soon as they come in. The firm will be reasonably rewarded for cooperating with the government,” he said.
Previously, the CAA had said it would not reassign the cross-strait flights until next year, but Hochen said the ministry plans to complete the process within a month.
Financial Supervisory Commission Chairman Lee Ruey-tsang (李瑞倉) had said that TransAsia had been planning to dissolve its business for some time, based on a series of steps that it had taken leading up to Tuesday’s decision.
“We could not tell from its financial plan that this would be the move that it [TransAsia] would make,” Hochen said when asked to comment on Lee’s remark.
“The company increased its capital by NT$1 billion in September, which would give people the impression that they wanted to continue their operations,” he said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS