Working Capability of TSA in Operation Flights 1995-2009

Working Capability of TSA in Passenger amount 1952-2009

Beginning in the late 1990’s, due to the widening of Highway No. 1, the opening of Highway No. 2, as well as the opening up of the national highway passenger bus industry, competition between service providers became fierce, with many vendors installing large luxurious seats and introducing tickets for the Taipei-Kaohsiung route for just a little more than 300 NTD.

The official full-route opening and operation of the Taiwan High Speed Rail in March of 2007 as well as the full-route opening of the Taipei-Ilan Highway on June 16, 2006 respectively opened up the western and eastern markets, taking away a significant portion of airline customers. Later on, in 2004, Highway No. 2 officially opened for full-route service, allowing domestic travel and tourism to be conveniently accomplished via car travel, without having to fly. Taiwan, during this stage, also ran into the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 in which many factories went bankrupt while others relocated to Mainland China and Southeast Asia. Job opportunities for the people of Taiwan decreased, which resulted in a sharp drop in travelers that reached a reduction percentage of 10%. Because of this, many airlines later decided to reduce the number of flights, and the Taipei SongShan Airport at that time gradually fell silent.

Subsequently, on July 4, 2009, direct cross-strait flights were opened, and weekend charter flights were officially launched. Taipei SongShan Airport therefore changed its originally domestic flight routes into combined international and domestic flight routes. On December 15 of the same year, daily charter flight operations were also launched. At this point, the amount of activity through Taipei SongShan Airport was again starting to slowly recover.

(Source: Special Issue for the 60th Anniversary of Taipei SongShan Airport, historical documents provided by Mr. Zhongzheng Tang, the Head of Jingzhung Borough)