AIRLINES
Starlux unveils new route
Starlux Airlines on Dec. 2 is to launch a new route between Taichung and Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture, it said in a statement yesterday. Starlux is to operate four round-trip flights on the new route every week, with tickets available now for purchase, it said. The airline would use Airbus A321neos with 188 seats, eight of which are business class and the rest economy class, it said. With flights between Taichung and Vietnam’s Phu Quoc Island to begin on Oct. 27, the Okinawa route would be the fourth scheduled overseas destination from Taichung provided by Starlux, with the other two to Macau and Da Nang in Vietnam, it said. The airline also operates charter flights between Taichung and Takamatsu in Japan’s Kagawa Prefecture.
DIPLOMACY
AIT names new official
A former aide to former US secretary of state John Kerry has assumed the post of cultural affairs officer at the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the de facto US embassy in Taiwan announced on Monday. Anne Foss, former special assistant to the under-secretary for public diplomacy at the US Department of State, as well as a special assistant to Kerry when he was secretary, began her new role in Taipei on Monday last week, the AIT said.
DIPLOMACY
Swedish delegation visits
A parliamentary group from Sweden is visiting Taiwan to better understand the country’s democratization and the situation across the Taiwan Strait, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Monday. The cross-party delegation from the Swedish-Taiwanese Parliamentarian Association is led by Lotta Johnsson Fornarve of the Left Party. It also includes John Weinerhall of the Moderate Party, a member on the committee on defense, and Goran Hargestam of the Sweden Democrats, a member of the committee on foreign affairs. The association has long been a firm supporter of Taiwan in the Swedish parliament and strongly backs Taiwan’s meaningful participation in world bodies such as the WHO, the ministry said, adding that it hopes the visit would help boost two-way parliamentary interactions and enhance the delegation members’ understanding of Taiwan’s democratic development and cross-strait situation.
SOCIETY
Man dies after leak
A 19-year-old man died on Monday night after having been in a coma following a carbon dioxide leak on Tuesday last week at an onshore construction site for an offshore wind farm in Changhua County. The man, surnamed Chien (簡), was one of three people who went into cardiac arrest at the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park site during the incident. Chien had no heartbeat when he was found and was rushed to Tungs’ Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital. He was put in an intensive care unit with a coma scale of three, the lowest possible score, indicating no eye opening, verbal response or motor response. The site’s main contractor, Teco Electric & Machinery Co, in a statement yesterday offered condolences to Chien’s family and pledged to provide assistance to the family and the other workers who were injured. The two others who were found without vital signs were a 58-year-old man surnamed Liu (劉) and a 38-year-old man surnamed Lai (賴). Both were in intensive care with coma scales of three. The other 14 workers who were injured had all been discharged from hospital.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
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