A government plan to establish a commercial service center at Taipei Songshan Airport has drawn investors from abroad, with reports that a Houston-based business aviation service provider expressed an interest in operating the center during a meeting with Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) yesterday.
Yeh said he met representatives from Universal Weather and Aviation Pvt Ltd, which specializes in offering integrated solutions for the business aviation sector.
“It [the company] is targeting Taiwanese businesspeople who make frequent cross-strait travel,” Yeh said. “The company also claims that Taiwan has an opportunity to catch up with Hong Kong within five years after the commercial service center begins to operate.”
Yeh said he was told that Hong Kong handles about 4,200 small private aircraft annually.
Universal does not own any jets and simply offers business aviation services, such as the arrangement of landing and department schedules of private aircraft, Yeh said.
At present, neither Taiwan nor China allows commercial jet companies to handle cross-strait flights. Both only allow civil aviation carriers, individuals owning private aircraft as well as those offering humanitarian flights to operate across the Taiwan Strait.
Whether commercial aircraft could operate freely between Taiwan and China would have to be settled through cross-strait negotiations, Yeh said.
“The two sides will meet in October and this [the commercial jet service] will be listed on the agenda,” he said.
Yeh added that the Civil Aviation Act (民用航空法) would have to be amended to facilitate the development of the commercial jet service industry
“The act does not allow overseas commercial jet carriers to provide domestic transportation services,” Yeh said. “So if an entrepreneur wants to fly between Taipei and Kaohsiung, he would not be able to do that unless he secures special permission from the government.”
Yeh said countries like the US and Japan already allow foreign commercial carriers to operate domestic flight routes, provided the flights originate or end abroad and all passengers are traveling from or to another country.
Cross-strait negotiations on the matter would be much more difficult, Yeh said.
Aside from Universal, Yeh said the ministry would review several other potential candidates before making any decision.
In related news, the ministry said it would soon send a team to Dubai to observe how it managed to attract 5,000 investors to its free-trade port within a period of 25 years.
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
RESTRICTIONS: All food items imported from the five prefectures must be accompanied by radiation and origin certificates, and undergo batch-by-batch inspection The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday announced that almost all produce from five Japanese prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant disaster would now be allowed into Taiwan. The five are Fukushima, Gunma, Chiba, Ibaraki and Tochigi. The only items that would still be blocked from being imported into the nation are those that are still banned from being circulated in Japan, the FDA added. With the removal of the ban, items including mushrooms, the meat of wild birds and other wild animals, and koshiabura” (foraged vegetables) would now be permitted to enter Taiwan, along with the other
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
A new tropical storm is expected to form by early tomorrow morning, potentially developing into a medium-strength typhoon that is to affect Taiwan through Wednesday next week, the Central Weather Administration said today. There are currently two tropical systems circulating to the east of Taiwan, agency forecaster Hsu Chung-yi (徐仲毅) said. The one currently north of Guam developed into Tropical Storm Gebi this afternoon and is expected to veer toward Japan without affecting Taiwan, Hsu said. Another tropical depression is 600km from the east coast and is likely to develp into the named storm Krathon either late tonight or early tomorrow, he said. This
RSS