Sinlaku sends air and rail traffic into chaos

In terms of domestic flights, up to 85 percent of Taiwan-bound flights from the outlying island of Kinmen were canceled yesterday, causing great complaints from passengers eager to return to Taiwan for a family reunion during the Mid-Autumn Festival falling on today.

Mandarin Airlines canceled all its Kinmen-Taipei flights yesterday, TransAsia Airways operated only one flight from Taipei to Kinmen, and Uni Airways operated three Kinmen-Taichung, and two Kinmen-Tainan flights.

The three airlines had scheduled 70 flights between Kinmen and Taiwan yesterday, but only 11 of which were operated.

Most flights between Makung of the offshore Penghu County and Taiwan were also canceled yesterday, with only one flight from Makung to Kaohsiung, two flights from Makung to Tainan, and two flights from Makung to Taichung operated.

As for international flights, as many as 40 flights between Taipei and Hong Kong were canceled yesterday due to the Typhoon Sinlaku.

Aviation sources said that 13 flights from Taipei and Kaohsiung to Hong Kong, and 27 flights from Hong Kong to Taipei and Kaohsiung were canceled yesterday, involving airlines such as Cathay Pacific Airways, Hong Kong Dragon Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, EVA Airways and China Airlines.

Among them, Cathay Pacific has also decided to cancel six flights from Taipei to Hong Kong scheduled before 11:00 a.m. today, namely CX465, CX407, CX471, CX403, CX469, and CX463.

China Airlines decided to cancel the international flights to Amsterdam, Rome and Brisbane scheduled to take off after 9:30 p.m. yesterday, and postpone the flights to Guam, Vienna, Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Frankfurt scheduled for yesterday till today.

EVA Airways canceled flights to Hong Kong, Macao, Seoul slated to take off after 12:00 p.m. yesterday. The firm will cancel three flights from Taipei to Hong Kong, namely BR851, BR865, and BR867; BR211 Taipei-Bangkok flight; and BR817 Taipei-Macao, BR835 Kaohsiung-Macao flights this morning. It will resume normal flights in these routes after 10:00 a.m. today.

Meanwhile, the SQ 878 operated by the Singapore Airlines, which was scheduled to arrive in Taipei yesterday will be re-scheduled to arrive at 12:45 p.m. today, and SQ879 will be re-scheduled to take off from Taipei at 1:45 p.m. today, and SQ027 will re-scheduled to depart at 4:10 p.m. today.

On another front, all the trains with reserved seats, operated by the Taiwan Railway Administration, were canceled yesterday, while the Taipei High-Speed Railway Corp. was forced to cut the number of scheduled trains to three trains per hour starting from 12:00 p.m. yesterday through 2:00 p.m. today.

Both flight and railway passengers are advised to give calls to counters or service centers of relevant airlines or railway firms to confirm in advance whether their flights or trains are still on schedule.

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