Taichung int'l airport expansion kicks off

At the ceremony, Wu said that the Central Taiwan International Airport will boast excellent software and hardware, and feature both interior and exterior beauty. “The airport will mainly serve flights to mainland China to tap the huge business potential in direct-flight market across the Taiwan Strait,” he stressed.

On the same occasion, Transportation and Communications Minister Mao Chih-kuo also noted that the Central Taiwan International Airport will be officially defined as a regional international airport dedicated to serving cross-strait flights, especially between Taichung and such mainland Chinese cities as Shanghai and Xiamen.

Under the ongoing expansion project, the government will invest NT$3.89 billion to build a new terminal covering a floor space of 20,000 square meters (up from the existing 7,500 square meters), improve taxiways, build five jetways, and construct an airport maintenance shed, all of which are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2010.

Mao said that after the new terminal building is completed, the annual passenger handling capacity will reach 1.35 million, and an additional capacity of 1 million will be available after a second expansion project is completed, bringing the total annual capacity of 2.35 million passengers. At the moment, the Taipei Songshan Airport has an annual handling capacity of three million passengers.

The minister added that after the improvement of the taxiways is completed, the airport will be able to serve airplanes with a loading capacity of 200 passengers.

Also yesterday, Taichung Mayor Jason Hu said if the new terminal building is operated by the private sector, then the overall competitiveness of the Central Taiwan International Airport will be significantly upgraded.

Hu said after the government completes construction of the new airport terminal, it can transfer the operation rights to private firms as long as relevant rules and regulations are amended. In fact, Hu continued, quite a few domestic and international airlines have shown keen interest in operating the new terminal of the Central Taiwan International Airport.

Just 10 years ago, Hu and Taichung County Magistrate Huang Chung-sheng jointly petitioned to Premier Wu at an industrial alliance meeting of four central Taiwan county and city chiefs that construction of the Central Taiwan International Airport should be accelerated to fulfill its function as an international airport as soon as possible.

Quite a few political observers interpreted the ongoing expansion of the central airport as the ruling Kuomintang's gift to Taichung Mayor Jason Hu, who has been appointed by the KMT to join the year-end mayoral election of the Taichung municipality, a merger of the Taichung City and Taichung County.

The observers said that the expansion project can effectively ease the worry of Taichung county residents about the possible marginalization of the county after being combined with Taichung City to a new municipality, and will thus help to cement their support for Hu in the year-end election.

But KMT spokesman Su Chun-bin said that expansion of the Chingchuankang Airport into an international airport is a must, given the booming exchange of trade, economic and tourist exchanges after the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement is put into practice.

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