Several Taiwanese and foreign airlines will increase their flights between Taiwan and Hong Kong ahead of the March 22 presidential election to help carry China-based Taiwanese home to vote in the election, industry sources said.
Taipei-headquartered China Airlines said it has added 10 additional flights between Taiwan and Hong Kong from March 19 to March 21. The additional flights are already almost fully booked, the company said.
According to Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways, seats on its regular and five added flights between March 19 and March 21 between Taiwan and Hong Kong have all been reserved.
Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, meanwhile, said its Taiwan-Hong Kong flights between March 19 and March 21 will all be full.
EVA Airways Corp will increase its flights on the Taiwan-Hong Kong route during the same period, the company said in a statement issued on Friday.
EVA Air said that the measure is aimed at enabling China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to easily return home ahead of the presidential election, and predicted that the remaining seats on board all its Taiwan-Hong Kong flights will be fully booked next week.
Meanwhile, EVA Air said that it would raise its fares between 10 percent to 15 percent on all its routes by the end of this month to reflect its rising fuel costs as crude oil prices continue to surge in the world market.
The company said that its oil cost had risen from US$84 per barrel on average for the whole of last year to an average US$117 per barrel since the beginning of this year.
An affiliate of shipping conglomerate Evergreen Group, EVA is the largest privately owned Taiwanese airline.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan
RSS