People might soon get the chance to fly between Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and Kaohsiung International Airport for the first time in eight years, if a planned tour package draws enough interest, a Kaohsiung tour operator said yesterday.
Hsieh Ming-hsiu (謝明秀) said her company is planning a three-day package that would take travelers from Taipei to Kaohsiung for a visit to the city and Kenting (墾丁) in Pingtung County during the Double Ten National Day long weekend.
Hsieh said that the travel agency is negotiating with a local carrier to charter a 158-seat Boeing 737-800 for the flight, and if enough people book the package, she would apply to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) for the permission to charter the plane.
According to CAA regulations, domestic charter flights are only allowed if there are no scheduled flights on the route.
The planned tour comes at a time of heightened demand for domestic tourism because of the limitations to overseas travel, including border and quarantine regulations in many countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Songshan airport to Kaohsiung route was once one of the most traveled routes in the world, with a flight leaving Songshan airport every 10 minutes at the peak of its popularity.
However, airlines faced strong competition after Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp began service in 2007, cutting the time for rail travel between the two cities to under two hours.
By 2012, service on the route had dwindled to three round-trip flights per week, which were usually less than half full, and Mandarin Airlines, a subsidiary of China Airlines, operated the last regular flight on Aug. 31, 2012.
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