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.
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