While a charter flight from Myanmar to Pingtung County’s Hengchun Airport could keep the airport open, security concerns for the flight and the potential for it to be repeated would ultimately decide the facility’s fate.
The flight operated by Myanmar Airways International is to be flown on an Airbus A319 with 100 passengers, including Burmese media and travel agency representatives, a source said.
The flight is still awaiting safety clearance from the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
Screen grab from Hengchun Airport’s Facebook
While an airline from the Philippines had wanted to operate the charter using a British Aerospace (BAE) 146 airplane, the county chose the Burmese airline, as it would be difficult for the BAE 146 to avoid a no-fly zone over the Ma-an Shan Nuclear Power Plant in the county, the source said.
However, the county government is still weighing both proposals, Pingtung Tourism Bureau Director Huang Chien-chia (黃建嘉) said.
Over the mid to long term, the county wants to extend the north-south runway by 400m in each direction, Huang said, adding that it is also planning to ask for funding to build an east-to-west runway to better handle the region’s katabatic winds.
Originally designed only for domestic flights, the airport has renovated its interior to include customs, quarantine and passport counters, Huang said.
Regional transport aircraft were not considered, as they could not accommodate checked luggage and are inconvenient for international travelers, the airport said.
However, aviation enthusiast Hsu Keng-jui (許耿睿) said that the Airbus A319 would not be able to carry large loads either.
The A319 requires 2,164m of runway to take off when carrying a maximum load, but the airport’s runway is only 1,700m long, Hsu said.
The lack of an established catering service at the airport requires the flight to stock its pantries for both arriving and returning flights, taking up space that could be allocated to luggage, Hsu said.
The airport has not received any flights since September 2014, and was told by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications that it would be closed if no international charter flights arrive by September.
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