Stung by a string of mishaps at Taiwan’s main international airport, authorities there hope to bring back former airport workers to help give the facility a new lease of life, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
CAA officials acknowledged, however, that it would not be an easy task to persuade them to return to work at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport because many took preferential early retirement packages.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) ordered the CAA rehire some of its best-performing former workers — many of whom are still under 55 years of age and have good engineering and management expertise — to help the airport cope with its current woes as it moves toward privatization, CAA officials said.
Taiwan’s largest airport is scheduled to be privatized in November and many airport workers have applied for early retirement as concerns grow over future job prospects at the airport and the potential loss of some benefits under the new regime.
To identify the root cause of the airport’s many problems, issues which include leaky restroom plumbing, poor facilities, expensive food and staff misconduct, the MOTC has been holding meetings almost every day with officials from supervisory agencies.
Meanwhile, airport authorities are planning to recruit about 50 new staffers, mostly engineers, next month.
The Taoyuan Airport Improvement Task Force, set up last month by the MOTC, has described the three-decades old airport as being “very ill,” and has vowed to raise its world ranking from 27th to the top 10 in three years.
According to the results of a survey conducted by the panel between July 23 and July 27 at Taoyuan airport’s two terminals, passengers are mostly dissatisfied with 16 of the most important services at the airport, such as expensive food, the airport’s surrounding landscape, defective luggage trolleys and unclear direction signs in the transit area.
Tropical depression TD22, which was over waters south of the Ryukyu Islands, is likely to develop into a tropical storm by this morning and pose a significant threat to Taiwan next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. The depression is likely to strengthen into a tropical storm named Krathon as it moves south and then veers north toward waters off Taiwan’s eastern coast, CWA forecaster Hsu Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said. Given the favorable environmental conditions for its development, TD22’s intensity would reach at least typhoon levels, Hsu said. As of 2pm yesterday, the tropical depression was about 610km east-southeast of Taiwan proper’s
Four factors led to the declaration of a typhoon day and the cancelation of classes yesterday, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said. Work and classes were canceled across Taiwan yesterday as Typhoon Krathon was forecast to make landfall in the southern part of the country. However, northern Taiwan had only heavy winds during the day and rain in the evening, leading some to criticize the cancelation. Speaking at a Taipei City Council meeting yesterday, Chiang said the decision was made due to the possibility of landslides and other problems in mountainous areas, the need to avoid a potentially dangerous commute for those
Typhoon Krathon, a military airshow and rehearsals for Double Ten National Day celebrations might disrupt flights at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in the first 10 days of next month, the airport’s operator said yesterday. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a statement that it has established a response center after the Central Weather Administration issued a sea warning for Krathon, and urged passengers to remain alert to the possibility of disruptions caused by the storm in the coming days. Flight schedules might also change while the air force conducts rehearsals and holds a final airshow for Double Ten National Day, it added. Although
SEMICONDUCTORS: TSMC is able to produce 2-nanometer chips and mass production is expected to be launched by next year, the company said In leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing China is behind Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) by at least 10 years as the Taiwanese chipmaker’s manufacturing process has progressed to 2 nanometers, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said yesterday. Wu made the remarks during a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee when asked by Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) about a report published in August by the Chinese version of Nikkei Asia that said Taiwan’s lead over China in chip manufacturing was only three years. She asked Wu Cheng-wen if the report was an accurate
RSS