International visitors transiting in Taiwan are to pay a NT$500 (US$16.33) airport service fee under a new policy to be implemented on March 31, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
It would be the first time the government has levied airport service fees on transit passengers since Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport began operations in 1979.
Department of Navigation and Aviation Deputy Director Han Chen-hua (韓振華) told a news conference that the fee should be included in fares when people book flights.
Photo: CNA
If the fee is not included in fares, passengers can pay it at airport check-in counters, Han said, adding that it would be refunded if they do not transit in Taiwan.
Currently, only outbound travelers are charged NT$500 per person for using services and facilities at the airport.
The average transit layover at Taoyuan airport is about five hours, ministry data showed.
The user-pays principle should apply to transit passengers, as they access airport services just as outbound passengers do, Han said.
“Airports near Taiwan have already begun charging transit passengers for using airport service facilities, including Narita International Airport in Japan, Incheon International Airport in South Korea and Changi International Airport in Singapore,” he said.
Taoyuan “airport has adopted disease prevention measures to comply with the government’s policy to contain COVID-19 and during the pandemic it upgraded facilities to elevate service quality,” he said.
Of the 48.68 million people who accessed Taoyuan airport in 2019, 24.18 million were outbound travelers and 2.96 million were transit passengers, Han said.
About 80 percent of the transit passengers were people traveling from North America to Southeast Asia via Taiwan, he said.
Before the pandemic, the airport collected about NT$10.6 billion in airport service fee revenue per year, he said.
Based on the number of transit passengers in 2019, the new policy could add NT$1.5 billion to revenue per year, he added.
Taoyuan airport has flights to 63 destinations around the world, Han said.
About 1,400 flights depart from the airport per week, which is about 60 percent of the weekly flights in 2019, he said.
About 4.09 million passengers accessed the airport in the first two months of this year, about 52 percent of the number in the same period in 2019, he said.
“As there has been a significant rebound in air travel, the number of people accessing Taoyuan airport could exceed 20 million this year,” he said. “The number of transit passengers could reach 1.2 million this year, which could bring in additional revenue of about NT$550 million.”
The additional revenue would help pay for the construction of the airport’s third terminal and third runway, as well as a new terminal at Kaohsiung International Airport, he said.
The airport service fee for transit passengers is about NT$360 at Narita, NT$250 at Incheon, NT$925 at Hong Kong and NT$200 at Changi International, he added.
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