The government is planning a special loan for the nation’s six airlines as their businesses have been severely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, Deputy Minister of Transportation and Communications Huang Yu-ling (黃玉霖) said yesterday.
Details of the bailout are to be decided at an Executive Yuan meeting tomorrow, he said on the sidelines of a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Transportation Committee.
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) announcement on Saturday that he had raised the travel advisory for 27 European nations and Dubai to a level 3 “warning,” effective today, is expected to worsen the plight of airlines already hurt by massive numbers of flight cancellations and ticket refunds caused by the outbreak.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Previously, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) had budgeted a total of NT$4.863 billion (US$160.92 million) to subsidize the airlines, as well as several items for the nation’ airports, including aircraft landing fees, land lease fees, airport facility usage fees and royalties, as well as the purchase of disease-prevention materials.
Asked if the bailout would be capped at NT$30 billion, as some local media have reported, Huang said that the airlines are still calculating the exact amounts they need to weather the crisis.
Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) supports the ministry’s proposal, Huang added.
“The airlines have experienced a massive reduction in revenue in the past few months due to the COVID-19 outbreak, which has led them to have low cash flow as well. The special loan program would fund paychecks for their employees and help them get though this difficult time,” he said.
So far, the nation has managed to keep about 20 percent of its airlines’ transport capacity to China, while more than 50 percent of their international flights have been canceled, ministry statistics showed.
The Center for Aviation, a market intelligence agency for the aviation and travel industry, yesterday forecast that most of the world’s airlines would be bankrupt by the end of May, unless coordinated government and industry action is taken now.
“As the impact of the coronavirus and multiple government travel reactions sweep through our world, many airlines have probably already been driven into technical bankruptcy, or are at least substantially in breach of debt covenants,” the center said. “Cash reserves are running low quickly as fleets are grounded, and what flights there are operate at much less than half full.”
“Forward bookings are far outweighed by cancelations and each time there is a new government recommendation it is to discourage flying. Demand is drying up in ways that are completely unprecedented,” it said. “Normality is not yet on the horizon.”
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
RSS