Taiwanese flight carriers should consider launching direct flights to Washington and Boston to draw more international travelers from North America transferring through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, the Institute of Transportation think tank said in a study published last month.
The study analyzed data collected in 2019, and identified travelers between North America and Asia-Pacific countries as a potential source of transfer passengers at Taoyuan airport.
About 26.07 million passengers transferred via one of the seven key Asia-Pacific flight hubs: Taoyuan airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Incheon International Airport in South Korea, Japan’s Narita Airport, Chang-I Airport in Singapore, and Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport in China, the study found.
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Of those passengers, 7.25 million traveled between North America and Asia-Pacific countries, and mainly transferred through Incheon, Hong Kong or Taoyuan airports, the study shows.
It found that 2.36 million passengers transferred through Incheon airport, followed by about 2 million through Hong Kong airport and 1.3 million through Taoyuan airport.
The study also found that 98 percent of transfer passengers traveling between North America and the Asia-Pacific region were mainly from 15 locations: the US, Vietnam, Canada, China, the Philippines, India, Thailand, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Australia and South Korea.
An analysis of the data showed that 1.83 million transfer passengers from the US were headed to Vietnam, accounting for 30.4 percent of the transfer passengers from the US on the routes between North America and the Asia-Pacific region.
Forty-seven percent transferred through Incheon airport, while 17 percent transferred through Narita and 16 percent through Taoyuan, the study shows.
Forty-eight percent of Chinese travelers to North America transited through Hong Kong airport, while 43 percent transferred through Incheon airport. Only 2 percent transferred through Taoyuan airport, as Beijing has yet to allow Chinese travelers to transfer flights in Taiwan, it said.
The study suggested that the government pursue transfer passengers on flights between the US and Vietnam.
“To attract more transit passengers, Taiwanese carriers can help facilitate flight transfers by launching new direct flights to North America and increasing flights to North American airports where direct flights are already available,” the study says.
The document identified several possible airports in the US for new direct flights, including Dulles International Airport in Washington, Logan International Airport in Boston, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Atlanta, Newark Liberty International Airport in Newark, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Dallas and Saipan International Airport on Saipan Island, which is part of the Northern Mariana Islands, a US commonwealth.
Priority should be given to launching direct flights to Washington and Boston, as each destination has potential passengers of more than 200,000 per year, the study said.
The number of flights to Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada, Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu, Hawaii, Chicago O’Hare International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York should be increased, as air passengers on these routes still have significant growth potential, the study added.
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