A boon to Taiwanese tourism
While the locals might not be entirely on board with LCCs, demand for flights to Taiwan from overseas has skyrocketed, leading to some 11 carriers flying nine routes to Taiwan, primarily from Southeast Asia and Japan.
Thanks to this demand, LCCs have inadvertently become a big boon to Taiwanese tourism, with the Singapore–Taoyuan and Kuala Lumpur–Taoyuan routes particularly significant, accounting for 29.5% and 42.4% of travel to Taiwan from their respective points of origin. In other words, about three of every 10 visitors arriving in Taiwan from Singapore and four of every 10 coming in from Malaysia are flying with LCCs. As a result, the ROC Tourism Bureau has begun working with several LCCs from Singapore and Malaysia to create package tours to Taiwan and make the most of this opportunity.
With LCCs on the rise around the world, many have begun to wonder when Taiwan will get one of its own.
In August 2012, TransAsia Airways chairman Vincent Lin recommended that the government work with Taiwan’s three major airlines—China Airlines, EVA Air, and TransAsia—to establish Taiwan’s own LCC brand in order to compete in this growing market. More recently, in March this year, China Airlines said that it was investigating the feasibility of launching its own low-cost brand.
With all these expectations, the Civil Aeronautics Administration recently proposed an amendment to the Regulations on Civil Air Transport Enterprises to revise downward the threshold at which airlines are eligible to apply for licenses to start new carriers, from revenues of NT$10 billion a year for three consecutive years to NT$6 billion across the same timeframe. Additionally, they plan to push for a 20–50% reduction in fees for using “secondary” airports, encouraging airlines to make more use of the airports in places like Kaohsiung and Hualien for international flights. There are also plans to establish tiered fees for landing at and taking off from Taoyuan International Airport at different times of day, in line with the experience of overseas airports, in the hopes of further stimulating the Taiwanese air travel market.
It looks like the skies over Taiwan will be getting busier and busier in the foreseeable future, and Taiwanese travelers are set to enjoy cheaper, more flexible options for seeing the world.