Losses mounted for Asian airlines yesterday as they cancelled more flights to the US in the wake of devastating attacks.
Hundreds of flights have been suspended or diverted since Tuesday's air attacks, stranding thousands of passengers and tonnes of cargo, and travel agents said nervous customers were rushing to cancel US and Canadian holiday trips.
"So many people have cancelled their holidays. They are so scared. They don't even want to go to Canada because they think these terrorists are mad," said agent Louise Lee in Hong Kong.
"Except for businesspeople, nobody wants to go," Lee said.
The US shut its airspace early on Tuesday after three hijacked planes slammed into the Pentagon and the twin towers in New York's World Trade Center.
It was the first time all of the nation's airports had been closed to civilian traffic.
US airports reopened yesterday but operations were limited to planes that had been diverted from their flight paths during the emergency. It was not clear when normal service would resume.
The suspension of service and loss of confidence in air travel are fresh blows to Asian carriers, already reeling from the world economic slowdown and high jet fuel prices. Some Asian airlines derive as much as 25 percent of their business from the US.
US regional carrier Midway Airlines, already operating under bankruptcy protection, yesterday became one of the first companies to cease business due to the terror attacks in the US.
It said it expected a drop in demand for air travel following the hijackings.
In Hong Kong, a regional hub, 38 flights to the US and Canada were expected to be cancelled or delayed, including nine cargo flights, the Airport Authority said.
Hong Kong's dominant carrier Cathay Pacific Airways cancelled its six passenger flights to the US yesterday and said all flights from the continent were cancelled until further notice.
Cathay said it would review its position after a statement by the US Federal Aviation Administration expected late yesterday. The Airport Authority, which runs Hong Kong International Airport, said operations were normal apart from the suspensions.
A spokeswoman said passengers planning to travel to the US after US airports reopen should expect tougher security screening and should contact their airlines for details.
But some stranded passengers were growing irate. "I need to get there [to the US] as soon as possible because I have important business," businessman Li Tat-leung said as he waited for an Air Canada flight that had been delayed several times and then cancelled.
Japan Airlines said it cancelled 26 flights to the US, Guam, Saipan, Canada, and Brazil, but flights to Australia, Europe, Asia, South Korea, and China were operating.
All Nippon Airways said it had cancelled nine flights to the US, including Guam and Honolulu. ANA, which depends on the US for 3.5 percent of its passenger numbers, said it was losing ?60 million (US$502,200) per day on the cancellations.
Korean Air (KAL) cancelled eight passenger flights to the US and delayed four cargo flights, said William Han, a KAL spokesman. Korea's second-largest carrier Asiana Airlines suspended all six passenger flights to US cities set down for yesterday and three cargo flights were delayed.
Taiwan's Chiang Kai Shek International Airport cancelled all flights to the US and Canada yesterday.
Singapore Airlines said it had cancelled one flight for Vancouver and another flight to San Francisco via Seoul would terminate in Seoul.
Malaysian Airline said three flights to Los Angeles and two to New York were cancelled yesterday. Thai Airways International said on Wednesday its single daily flight to Los Angeles was suspended indefinitely.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)