Starting today, more than half of the boarding gates at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport are to be closed as the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a sharp decline in passenger traffic at the nation’s largest airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday.
Lin spoke to reporters about the ministry’s decision after attending a ceremony in New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) to mark the launch of the construction of the Tamkang Bridge (淡江大橋).
“Passenger arrivals at the airport have dropped below 1,000 per day. We have been renovating some of the airport’s facilities and would start closing some boarding gates. Passengers would enter and depart through designated gates, which will allow us to save on personnel and maintenance costs,” Lin said.
Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
Airport facilities that are under renovation include runways and taxiways, as well as restrooms, ceilings and floors inside the terminals, he said, adding that closing 20 of the 38 boarding gates would quicken the pace of renovations.
Asked why the ministry did not choose to close one terminal and leave the other one open, Lin said that shutting down one terminal would prevent airport employees from accessing facilities in the closed terminal.
Airport operator Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said that it would close boarding gates A1 to A5 and B1 to B5 in Terminal One, and C6 to C10 and D6 to D10 in Terminal Two, adding that these gates are located at the far ends of the two terminals.
The remaining 18 gates would function normally, it said.
Not only would the measure meet the current demand, but it would also allow the airport company to more easily adjust usage of the boarding gates, it said, adding that it is a better cost-saving measure than shutting down one of the terminals.
Lin added that the ministry has approved TIAC’s proposed changes to the design of Terminal Three and submitted the proposal to the Executive Yuan for final approval.
If approved by the Cabinet, TIAC would be able to place the project on a public tender by the end of this year, Lin said.
The company has also adjusted the budget for the Terminal Three project from a more practical perspective, Lin said, adding that the exact amount is still being calculated.
The company has kept the design of a cloud-shaped ceiling for the terminal and eliminated some of the more complex details, which would make the terminal easier to build and maintain, Lin said.
It would be the fourth time that TIAC would be placing the project for tender, as the three attempts last year failed to attract any bidders, despite an increase in construction budget.
Under the new proposal, the budget allocated for the Terminal Three and other peripheral constructions would be about NT$95 billion (US$3.15 billion), of which NT$53.7 billion would be used to build the terminal.
Terminal Three would be opened in three stages, with the north concourse scheduled to be completed by 2024, the company said.
The main terminal is scheduled to begin trial operation in 2025, and the south concourse is to be completed by 2026, it said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS