Starting today, travelers can transit through the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport before flying to a third country, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said this week, after the transit service had been suspended for more than one year.
The airport operator resumed the service after the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on Saturday further eased border control measures that were imposed to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The center has also lifted the ban on inbound passengers being picked up by friends and relatives at the airport.
Photo courtesy of Taoyuan International Airport Corp
On Monday afternoon, the company conducted a drill to ensure that all stakeholders at the airport are familiar with the new procedures, from guiding transit passengers to the security checkpoint and dining areas to ensuring that relatives pick up international arrivals in the designated areas.
The drill proceeded smoothly as the duties had been divided among airline personnel, duty-free shop workers, and Aviation Police Bureau and Centers for Disease Control officers, TIAC president Jerry Dan (但昭璧) said following the practice run.
“Allowing international arrivals to be picked up by their friends and relatives will greatly shorten the time they wait at the airport,” he said.
Upon disembarking, transit passengers would be guided by airline crew to a security checkpoint, and then wait for reboarding at designated boarding gates or VIP rooms, TIAC said.
Duty-free purchases or meals ordered would be delivered to them, the company said.
In addition to wearing a designated sticker, transit passengers would have to wear a mask and disinfect their hands, and airport personnel would read their temperature, it said, adding that terminal areas visited by the passengers would be cleaned and disinfected.
Arrivals remaining in Taipei could get a ride from family or friends, or take a quarantine taxi, the company said.
Friends and relatives must wait for arrivals in the international arrival terminal’s waiting area, it said, adding that they cannot park in the pickup zone outside.
Offenders would be fined by the Aviation Police Bureau, it added.
The airport suspended services to transit passengers on May 19 last year after the COVID-19 alert was raised to level 3.
Also taking effect today, international arrivals are to undergo a three-day home quarantine followed by a four-day self-initiated epidemic prevention period.
Arrivals must present a negative polymerase chain reaction test result within two days of flying to Taiwan and there is an initial cap of 25,000 arrivals per week.
In other news, the Travel Bureau has proposed that the requirement that people in domestic tour groups have a booster shot of a COVID-19 vaccine be waived, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) said.
“Some travel agencies told us that most of those on local tours are elderly people, many of whom have yet to get a booster shot. The requirement has prompted them to cancel half of the tours,” Wang said. “We have written to the CECC with the hope that they can drop the booster shot requirement for domestic tour groups, just as they did for gym members.”
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS