A battle over the right to operate charter flights between Taiwan and Japan has intensified this week, after media reports said that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications planned to award the routes to Far Eastern Air Transport and TransAsia Airways.
Mandarin Airlines currently holds the rights to fly charter flights to Japan.
Uni Air and Mandarin Airlines would be given the right to fly between Taipei and Saigon, the Chinese-language newspaper the China Times, reported earlier this week.
However, Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) Director-General Billy Chang (張國政) denied the newspaper report on Monday, saying that the flight allocation was still under negotiation.
He said the ministry did not have a preference for the ultimate winner at this point.
There is no timetable for settling the dispute and negotiations will continue until a consensus is reached among all parties, he said.
Last week, the ministry invited officials from all four airlines to a meeting to tackle the issue. The CAA has proposed several possible solutions.
An official who participated in the meeting, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Minister of Transportation and Communications Kuo Yao-chi (郭瑤琪) had attended the meeting but had not made a final decision.
Although the meeting had proceeded peacefully, after it was over, the airline operators expressed anger and protested some of the ministry's proposals.
Tony Su (
Since Mandarin Airlines already has the rights to fly charter flights to Japan, Uni Airways should become one of the first choices should another operator want to join the game.
Su said the ministry intended to tie the two charter flight options -- Taipei-Japan flights and Taipei-Saigon flights -- together and force Uni and Mandarin to abandon the Japanese routes in exchange for the Vietnamese ones.
The interests of the two airlines have been completely ignored, he said.
Chen Mei-wen (
Chen added that the Kaohsiung-Hong Kong route was given to Mandarin Airlines in 2002, when Far Eastern's performance was ranked first among domestic airlines.
"Was the result fair?" Chen asked.
Currently, Far Eastern holds the rights to the Kaohsiung-Seoul service, whereas Uni Air has the Kaohsiung-Bali route.
The charter flights that Mandarin Airlines currently offers to Japan go to smaller airports such as those in Hokkaido and Asahikawa.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS