Kaohsiung International Airport might already be Taiwan’s second-biggest airport, but it is now hoping for a larger slice of the nation’s aviation pie.
Pitching Kaohsiung’s location, the local government and lawmakers have begun a campaign to turn the airport into a cash cow that can bring more investment and business to the port city.
The campaign’s timing coincides with the accession to power in May of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration and its “new southbound policy” aimed at building closer ties with Southeast Asian nations.
Of the airport’s more than 700 weekly flights, 500 are to destinations in Southeast Asia and another 162 serve destinations in China, and the city thinks it is well-positioned for more.
DPP Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆), who represents the district where the airport is located, on July 2 asked the central government to come up with measures to encourage airlines to operate more flights out of Kaohsiung.
He also demanded that the Ministry of Transportation and Communications issue a report on the utilization of Kaohsiung airport in a month.
“Our goal is to have Kaohsiung airport share the burden of the international airport in Taoyuan as quickly as possible and create a win-win situation for both sides,” Lai said.
On June 16, Kaohsiung Secretary-General Yang Ming (楊明) suggested during a Cabinet meeting that the ministry assess the possibility of relocating more international flights from Taoyuan to Kaohsiung.
“The recent flight disruptions at Taoyuan airport resulting from floods reflected a long-standing problem. The high concentration of flights at the airport has made it hard to manage so many passengers,” he said at the time.
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is by far the nation’s biggest international gateway. It handled 38.47 million passengers last year, up 7.4 percent from 2014 and more than the 32 million it was originally designed for.
It is undertaking projects to dramatically increase its capacity, but, along with Lai, Yang thinks some of the flights should be diverted away to other airports.
“Southern Taiwan needs more flights to help bring in more tourists and create business opportunities,” Yang said, adding that moving flights to Kaohsiung would help strike a balance in development between the north and south.
Although Kaohsiung airport has also seen growth in passenger arrivals and departures in recent years, there is room for it to process more passengers.
Kaohsiung International Airport Deputy Director Fu Yao-nan (傅耀南) said the airport handled 4.86 million passengers flying international routes last year, still some way off its designed capacity of 6.09 million, so Kaohsiung would welcome more flights bound for Southeast Asian nations.
However, while Lai, Yang and Fu are appealing for more traffic and hoping to draw more visitors from Southeast Asian nations to the city, they might be engaging in wishful thinking.
Industry sources questioned whether airlines would be willing to cooperate with a shift of flights from Taoyuan to Kaohsiung because of questions over operating costs and market demand.
Behind the need to expand the airport’s facilities, the core problem facing Kaohsiung airport is a lack of passengers, they said, adding that if there were demand, airlines would take steps on their own to add more flights to and from the city.
Overall demand for international travel in Kaohsiung has been rising, with the growth in passengers on international routes averaging 14.1 percent at the airport from 2012 to last year.
However, the load factors of inbound and outbound international flights in Kaohsiung have been 5 to 6 percent lower over that time than flights at Taoyuan airport.
Would airlines move flights south if they paid a price in more empty seats?
Fu said another problem is that Kaoshiung airport is already too busy during the peak hours of 5:30am to 7:30am and from 1:30pm to 3pm.
Fu said that if flights were diverted from Taoyuan to Kaohsiung, they would have to operate at off-peak times, something analysts said airlines would not accept because of cost concerns and low demand.
The airport’s operations are also constrained by a decades-old curfew that bans aircraft landing and taking off from midnight to 6:30am.
Kaohsiung-based tourism operators have tried hard over the past decades to have the curfew removed, but local residents have resisted.
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