Behind the two crashes that sank the company were some critical business mistakes. For Taiwan’s erstwhile No. 3 carrier, TransAsia Airways, the end came mercifully. For nearly two years before it declared bankruptcy last November, TransAsia had struggled to fill flights, its load capacity falling to 60%. Even slashing prices to as little as NT$1,500…
The ride-hailing app is now partnering with licensed car-rental companies in Taiwan. Ride-hailing app Uber returned to Taiwan in April after a two-month suspension of its services, this time in partnership with licensed car-rental companies. In a break with Uber’s standard business model, drivers’ companies set the fares – and non-professional drivers are barred from…
The central government has given Kenting’s only airport one final chance to prove its viability. The best beaches on the island of Taiwan are in Kenting National Park, an isolated nook of the Hengchun Peninsula near the country’s southernmost point. To get there from Taipei requires a two-hour journey on the high-speed rail to Kaohsiung,…
Local authorities are pressing for Ching Chuan Kang to be upgraded to international airport status. Taoyuan Airport provides the majority of Taiwan’s international flight service. Taipei City’s Songshan Airport, Kaohsiung Airport, and Taichung Airport offer limited international service to Asian destinations. But since a flash flood disrupted service at Taoyuan Airport in June 2016, Taichung…
Given the downtown airport’s ownership structure and importance in serving Taiwan’s outlying islands, closing it would be problematic. Originally from Xindian, Alex Tsai is the manager of a bed and breakfast in the offshore island-county of Penghu and travels to Taipei up to five times a year to visit family and friends, shop, and take…
Avian Flu Recurrence Hits Several Counties The H5N6 avian flu appeared in Taiwan this past month, with confirmed cases being discovered in Hualien, Yilan, Tainan, Chiayi, and most recently Hsinchu, resulting in the culling of nearly 200,000 birds on 28 poultry farms. The H5N6 strain of Influenza A, commonly known as bird flu, is highly…
The Taipei city government is trying a number of different methods to relieve the chronic parking problem. Given the serious shortage of parking spaces that has contributed to chronic traffic chaos, the Taipei city government has been striving to expand the number of parking lots, while also increasing the utilization efficiency of existing facilities and…
SUVs and imported luxury cars provided much of the market momentum. For Taiwan’s automotive sector, 2016 was a year of respectable growth in the face of a challenging economy, with the emergence of new trends and customer preferences. An injection of open-minded young buyers interested in luxury and/or utility is giving further impetus to an…
The domestic companies, which focus mainly on the replacement market, are small but highly efficient producers. Taiwan might be better known for its massive high tech companies such as TSMC, Quanta Computer, and Compal Electronics, but most of Taiwan’s economy is driven by small and medium sized enterprises (SMES) in an array of relatively low-tech…
Among Taiwanese scooter brands, the relative newcomer Gogoro is an anomaly. Unlike such major scooter makers as Kymco and SYM, Gogoro did not begin as an OEM or ODM producer. If that suggests the company may lack the manufacturing acumen of some of its competitors, it also means that Gogoro may have an easier time…
