The number of passengers passing through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport this year could exceed that of 2019 amid a strong recovery in air travel and the number of long weekends during the second half of this year, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said yesterday.
As of May 31, 19.57 million passengers had passed through the nation’s largest international airport, which was 96.5 percent of 2019’s figure, TIAC vice president Lee Chun-te (李俊德) told a news conference in Taipei.
The number exceeded 20 million on June 4, he added.
Photo: CNA
The airport operator estimated that the number of travelers next month and in August would rise 9.5 percent to reach 8.53 million people, which would exceed the 8.52 million recorded in the same period in 2019, Lee said.
“International arrivals and departures at the airport could approach or even surpass 2019 levels. Factors such as changes in global economy, the travel habits of domestic passengers, international politics and the exchange rate of the New Taiwan dollar against other currencies might influence overall air passenger volume,” he said.
More Taiwanese might be motivated to travel abroad with more long weekends available in the next six months, he said.
The conflict between Israel and Iran has caused many airlines to bypass airspace in the region, Lee said, adding that it would inform travelers of any flight changes.
Some Asian countries have reported a decline in sales of flights to Japan due to a prediction in the 1999 manga The Future I Saw by Ryo Tatsuki. The original version claimed a great disaster would occur in 2011, which some people believe accurately predicted the March 11, 2011, Tohoku earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. An updated version of the manga published in 2021 said that “the real catastrophe” would come in July 2025.
In the past few weeks social media posts warning of the manga’s prediction have surged in Taiwan, Hong Kong and South Korea, the Washington Post reported on Thursday last week.
Although fears over the manga could affect flight ticket prices, the airport had yet to detect a significant change in the number of Taiwanese tourists to Japan, Lee said.
The airport has also not seen a steady rise of Taiwanese returning to Taiwan for recall elections set for July 26, he added.
Organizing one national referendum and 26 recall elections targeting Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators could cost NT$1.62 billion (US$55.38 million), the Central Election Commission said yesterday. The cost of each recall vote ranges from NT$16 million to NT$20 million, while that of a national referendum is NT$1.1 billion, the commission said. Based on the higher estimate of NT$20 million per recall vote, if all 26 confirmed recall votes against KMT legislators are taken into consideration, along with the national referendum on restarting the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant, the total could be as much as NT$1.62 billion, it said. The commission previously announced
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday welcomed NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s remarks that the organization’s cooperation with Indo-Pacific partners must be deepened to deter potential threats from China and Russia. Rutte on Wednesday in Berlin met German Chancellor Friedrich Merz ahead of a ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of Germany’s accession to NATO. He told a post-meeting news conference that China is rapidly building up its armed forces, and the number of vessels in its navy outnumbers those of the US Navy. “They will have another 100 ships sailing by 2030. They now have 1,000 nuclear warheads,” Rutte said, adding that such
The cosponsors of a new US sanctions package targeting Russia on Thursday briefed European allies and Ukraine on the legislation and said the legislation would also have a deterrent effect on China and curb its ambitions regarding Taiwan. The bill backed by US senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal calls for a 500 percent tariff on goods imported from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations such as China and India, which account for about 70 percent of Russia’s energy trade, the bankroll of much of its war effort. Graham and Blumenthal told The Associated Press
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
RSS