《TAIPEI TIMES》Taoyuan airport introduces second radar system

By Shelley Shan / Staff reporter

A second surface-search radar system has been built at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to better detect runway incursions, the Civil Aviation Administration （CAA） said yesterday.

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The state-of-the-art system has been installed on the airport’s south runway to detect foreign objects and enable air traffic controllers to monitor aircraft and motor vehicles on the runway and surrounding areas, the agency said.

The first surface-search radar system has been in use at the nation’s largest airport since 2007, the CAA said.

However, the number of aircraft using the airport has continued to grow over the past 17 years, creating the need to expand airport facilities, it said.

The second surface-search radar system has increased capacity and covers a larger area to meet demand brought by the third terminal, which is scheduled to be completed in 2026, the agency said.

The new radar system has been integrated with the first radar system and a multipoint positioning system, and has been connected to the automatic system in the control tower, the CAA said, adding that it would reduce the occurrence of runway incursions, decrease delays caused by airport operations and increase the speed at which passengers and cargo pass through the airport.

“The development of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is key to Taiwan’s civil aviation industry. We need to prepare in advance to ensure that the airport can continue to meet growing demands from passengers and airlines,” CAA Director-General Ho Shu-ping （何淑萍） said. “The new radar system not only increases the safety of the airport’s operations, but offers strong technical support for the third terminal.”

In other news, Ho confirmed that the CAA is considering raising overflight charges that airlines must pay when their flights pass through the Taipei Flight Information Region （FIR）.

The agency annually collects about NT$1.9 billion （US$60.33 million） from planes traveling through the Taipei FIR, which covers 18 international aviation routes, Ho said.

“The FIRs near us have adjusted their overflight fees, but we have not changed ours for 17 years, during which time we had purchased new systems and equipment. We will perform a cost analysis and host public hearings on this matter before we announce a new pricing scheme to the public,” she said.

Ho said that the agency’s flight records for the past three weeks showed no abnormality on China’s M503, W122 and W123 flight routes, the use of which China unilaterally changed on Feb. 1.

The M503 route is close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, while the W122 and W123 routes are close to Taiwan’s outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES