Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT, 遠東航空) expects to receive three to five Airbus airplanes in September as part of the carrier’s efforts to start flights across the Taiwan Strait, the Taiwanese airline said on Saturday.
The exact number of planes FAT will rent from Airbus will depend on how the local carrier does in repairing two grounded Boeing 757s, the carrier said.
FAT, which resumed services in mid-April after a three year hiatus because of financial problems, currently operates a fleet of three MD-80 aircraft and provides four weekly flights between Taipei and the outlying island of Kinmen. The carrier said its fleet will expand with another MD-80 coming into service shortly after the completion of repair work on the plane.
After its service resumption, the carrier was assigned by the aviation authorities a total of 24 flights a week to the Chinese cities of Taiyuan in Shanxi Province, Sanya and Haikuo in Hainan Province, and Chengdu in Sichuan Province.
FAT failed to secure the most popular Chinese destinations, such as Beijing and Shanghai.
The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) gave FAT a condition that the airline must meet in order to operate cross-strait flights: The carrier must increase its fleet to nine planes by Oct. 20, otherwise the number of flights will be cut according to the size of the fleet.
FAT said it is determined to meet the CAA’s demand either by accelerating efforts to repair existing planes or by renting new aircraft. The carrier also plans to provide services to Penghu and Siem Reap, Cambodia, starting this month.
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