China Airlines (CAL, 華航) is studying the feasibility of launching direct flights between Taiwan and Prague, Minister of Transportation and Communications Wang Kwo-tsai (王國材) yesterday told the legislature’s Transportation Committee.
Wang made the remarks in response to a question by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) about the ministry’s plan to stimulate the tourism sector as national borders are to reopen on Thursday next week.
While Taiwan offers direct flights to the UK and other destinations in western Europe, it has yet to offer direct flights to northern, central and east European countries, Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
“Taiwan and central and east European countries have grown closer in the past three years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which Taiwan donated masks to Europe and received vaccines donated by Lithuania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland,” Hsu added.
“Countries in eastern Europe were ruled by communists. Compared with their attitudes toward Russia and China, they have a better impression of Taiwan and think that Taiwanese are friendlier,” he said.
“Lawmakers from those countries have visited Taiwan as well, and vice versa. We should be able to launch more direct flight services to eastern Europe,” he said.
The government should consider offering direct flights to Sweden, the Czech Republic and Lithuania, he added.
Wang said flights to Prague could operate only if they have sufficient passengers.
Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien (林國顯) said that Taiwan and the Czech Republic have signed a civil aviation pact.
However, airlines must take into account various factors before launching new flights, Lin said, adding that CAL is the only carrier that has been asked to evaluate the feasibility of direct flights between Taiwan and Prague.
“There are more Taiwanese tourists who want to visit eastern Europe than eastern European tourists who want to visit Taiwan. As such, it would be difficult for the airline to sustain a flight service without picking up connecting passengers along the flight route,” Lin said.
Wang told Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) that the Mainland Affairs Council and the National Security Council are discussing whether the “small three links” connecting Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China’s Fujian Province would be resumed when the borders reopen.
Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) told the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee that the Lunar New Year holiday next year might be a more appropriate time to resume the links.
“Even though the borders will soon be reopened, the Central Epidemic Command Center still limits the number of inbound travelers to 150,000 per week, which would in turn affect the number of inbound flights to Taiwan,” Chiu said when asked why he could only give a conservative estimate on the timeline.
The Chinese Communist Party’s attitude might also affect the timeline, Chiu said.
“They do not want to lose face and would prefer to keep things low profile. We have been working on some options, which might not work if we speak about them first. We will not reveal any details unless we make certain progress in this matter,” Chiu said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
RSS