Travelers can look forward to fewer flight delays after Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s south runway resumes operations on Thursday, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said.
The airport has been plagued by flight delays since Feb. 19 last year when TIAC closed the south runway for renovations, leaving only the north runway open for flight landings and departures and triggering complaints from airline companies and passengers.
TIAC chairman Yin Chen-pong (尹承蓬) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee in Taipei that renovations had been completed and the south runway’s length has been extended by 300m to 3,800m.
Since it has been upgraded to a Category II runway, Yin said the minimum visibility requirement could be lower than the one currently used.
Yin added that both the north and south runways would be open for operations during the Lunar New Year holiday this year.
However, renovations on the north runway are set to start in March, Yin said, adding that the runway is expected to resume operations before the Lunar New Year next year.
Minister of Transportation and Communications Yeh Kuang-shih (葉匡時) said that with the opening of the south runway, he expects smoother flight operations.
“Last year, we only had the north runway, which sometimes had to be closed for workers to repair potholes,” Yeh said.
“The airport will have only the south runway operating after the Lunar New Year holiday, but it will offer better services than the north runway,” he said.
Yeh also told legislators that the ministry is scheduled to meet with Greater Taoyuan Government officials on Jan. 21 to discuss details of the Taoyuan Aerotropolis plan.
“The plan includes the airport and development of the land near the airport,” he said, adding that plans to build a third runway will not be changed.
However, land development in the surrounding area is to be carried out by the Taoyuan government, which is still re-evaluting the plan.
Yeh said that passenger traffic at the airport is growing rapidly and the construction of Terminal Three will take another six years.
He added that the airport is trying to expand the annual capacity of Terminal Two by 5 million passengers, with construction set to be completed in about two years.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
Taiwanese singer Jay Chou (周杰倫) plans to take to the courts of the Australian Open for the first time as a competitor in the high-stakes 1 Point Slam. The Australian Open yesterday afternoon announced the news on its official Instagram account, welcoming Chou — who celebrates his 47th birthday on Sunday — to the star-studded lineup of the tournament’s signature warm-up event. “From being the King of Mandarin Pop filling stadiums with his music to being Kato from The Green Hornet and now shifting focus to being a dedicated tennis player — welcome @jaychou to the 1 Point Slam and #AusOpen,” the
RSS