The high speed rail has dealt a heavy blow to domestic air traffic, reducing the number of air passengers by 22 percent compared with figures for the same period last year, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday.
Ministry officials said there were approximately 119,000 domestic flights in the first six months of this year, down 13.72 percent from the 138,000 flights during the same period last year.
The number of air passengers on domestic routes totaled 6.72 million in the first six months of this year, down 22.14 percent from the 8.63 million the same period last year.
By comparison, the number of international flights totaled 95,820 during the first half of this year, up 3.36 percent over the figure for the same period last year.
The number of passengers on these international flights totaled 12.01 million, up 4.26 percent from the 11.52 million last year.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Tsai Duei (蔡堆) said the launch of the high speed rail service in early January had affected other transportation operators, especially domestic air carriers.
Taking consumer rights as well as the sustainable development of air carriers into consideration, the ministry has reviewed flight routes and numbers and begun working with the industry to promote package tours, he said.
Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Billy Chang (張國政) said a sluggish economy as well as convenient land transportation had affected domestic air carriers.
As the air carriers cannot allow their planes to lie idle, some have been forced to cut air fares to compete with the high speed rail, Chang said, adding that "this is not a good thing."
The railway has cut travel time between Taipei and Kaohsiung -- five hours on a regular train -- by more than half.
The high speed rail operates 45 round-trip runs daily, carrying about 50,000 passengers. It has transported 10 million passengers since its inauguration on Jan. 5.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) working group for Taiwan-related policies is likely to be upgraded to a committee-level body, a report commissioned by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. As Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is increasingly likely to upgrade the CCP’s Central Leading Group for Taiwan Affairs, Taiwanese authorities should prepare by researching Xi and the CCP, the report said. At the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the CCP, which ended on Thursday last week, the party set a target of 2029 for the completion of some tasks, meaning that Xi is likely preparing to
US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to