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.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
RSS