The Civil Aeronautics Administra-tion (CAA) announced yesterday that the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had recently approved an application from four major domestic airlines to allow passengers taking flights from Taipei to Tainan or from Taipei to Kaohsiung to switch carriers without incurring additional fees.
When introduced, the measure will enable passengers to board virtually any flight that is available -- not necessarily the airline for which they purchased the ticket.
However, as of yesterday, the four domestic airlines -- Far Easter Air Transport, Uni Air, TransAsia Airways and Mandarin Airlines -- had yet to decide if they would charge passengers an identical ticket price as well. Nor had they decided when the new measure would be launched, the administration said.
CAA Deputy Director General Lee Chung-rong (李仲榮) said yesterday the four airlines would have to submit another application to the FTC if they decide to establish identical ticket prices.
They would also have to submit their plan to the CAA for final review, Lee said.
The administration will further require carriers to specify on their flight tickets whether or not they allow passengers to switch carriers, he said.
Lee said the measure would shorten the average waiting time to 30 minutes or less. Passengers taking the flight from Taipei to Kaohsiung, for example, normally have to wait an average of two hours for a seat on a plane.
The commission consulted CAA regarding the four carriers' initiative and decided the benefits would outweigh the disadvantages, the FTC said.
However, the FTC said that because it had yet to see solid evidence to demonstrate that the operation of the high-speed railway will have a significant impact on the airline industry, it would only permit the four carriers to execute the ticket-switching plan until August 2008.
The commission allows all carriers to continue setting their own respective ticket prices for both routes.
The settling of accounts will be left up to the individual companies, the commission said.
While all four carriers currently operate on the route between Taipei and Kaohsiung, only Far Eastern and TransAsia Airways service the route between Taipei and Tainan.
Though applications for both routes have already been approved, Far Eastern and TransAsia told the press yesterday that they would not introduce ticket switching on the Taipei-Tainan route.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS