China’s military exercises in the Taiwan Strait forced 36 domestic flights to be canceled, while some international flights could not transit in Taiwan, the Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday announced that it had designated five zones around Taiwan to conduct live-fire exercises, limiting the availability of usable airspace and increasing complexity in coordination among air traffic controllers of flight information regions yesterday, the agency said.
To ensure aviation safety, Air Navigation and Weather Services activated its traffic flow management mechanism for flights entering the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) from the FIRs of Fukuoka in Japan and Hong Kong, the CAA said.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA
Flights arriving from the Manila FIR were guided by aviation radar to bypass danger zones, it said.
All flights within the Taipei FIR were asked to take alternative routes for safety reasons, it said.
As of midday yesterday, no international flights had been canceled, although some canceled stopovers in Taiwan, CAA data showed.
Twenty-nine flights operating between Taiwan proper and Kinmen County, and seven flights between Taiwan proper and Lienchiang County (Matsu) had been canceled as of midday yesterday, the data showed.
The CAA on Monday estimated nearly 6,000 people planning to travel between Taiwan proper and Kinmen or Lienchiang would be affected by the PLA exercises, which completely blocked the flights routes to the two outlying counties.
It coordinated with airlines to add 10 extra flights on the Kinmen route after the drills ends, including originally scheduled flights that were delayed, it said.
As a result, 26 delayed flights on the Kinmen route would take off after the exercises conclude, it said.
As the exercises were to end after the last scheduled flight on the Lienchiang route yesterday, the CAA said it has asked airlines to adjust capacity and add extra flights today.
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
The Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau audited six hotels in an effort to prevent price gouging ahead of Korean band BTS’ concert tour in the city scheduled for Nov. 19, 21 and 22 this year. The bureau on Friday said that the audits — conducted in response to allegations of unfair pricing posted on social media — found no wrongdoing. These establishments included the local branches of Chateau de Chine, Hotel Nikko, My Humble House, and Grand Hai Lai, it said, adding that the Consumer Protection Commission would have penalized price gougers had the accusations been substantiated. The bureau said the Tourism Development Act
BACK TO WINTER: A strong continental cold air mass would move south on Tuesday next week, bringing colder temperatures to northern and central Taiwan A tropical depression east of the Philippines could soon be upgraded to be the first tropical storm of this year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday, adding that the next cold air mass is forecast to arrive on Monday next week. CWA forecaster Cheng Jie-ren (鄭傑仁) said the first tropical depression of this year is over waters east of the Philippines, about 1,867km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), and could strengthen into Tropical Storm Nokaen by early today. The system is moving slowly from northwest to north, and is expected to remain east of the Philippines with little chance of affecting Taiwan,
The military yesterday said it has located the flight data recorder, or black box, of an F-16V jet that disappeared off eastern Taiwan earlier this month, and it would soon deploy a salvage team to try to retrieve it. Air Force Command Headquarters said that while it had pinned down the location of the black box, it was still searching for the aircraft’s sole pilot, air force Captain Hsin Po-yi (辛柏毅). Without providing details, the air force said it had located the black box days after detecting some intermittent signals and would now engage a team of professionals to retrieve it. The air
RSS