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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》Delegation from Kumamoto calls for flight route
Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lin Kuo-shien, left, shakes hands with Japanese lawmaker Tetsushi Sakamoto in Taipei on Tuesday. Photo: Ting Yi, Taipei Times
Staff writer, with CNA
A delegation of local politicians and legislators from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party （LDP） in Kumamoto Prefecture has called for a resumption of direct flights between the prefecture and Taiwan, the Civil Aeronautics Administration （CAA） said on Wednesday.
The delegates, who are on a four-day trip to Taiwan to boost ties, are hoping that the resumption would enhance trade, culture and travel connections between the two sides, the CAA said in a news release.
Regular flights between Kaohsiung and Kumamoto began in October 2015, but the route was suspended in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CAA said.
China Airlines operated three flights per week at about 70 percent of capacity, the CAA said.
CAA Director-General Lin Kuo-shien （林國顯） said his agency would help facilitate the resumption of flights between Kaohsiung and Kumamoto, as passenger numbers on other routes between the two nations are recovering rapidly.
There are 571 flights per week between Taiwan and Japan, or 79 percent of the pre-pandemic level, he said.
Japan was among Taiwanese travelers’ favorite destinations, with 4.91 million people flying from Taiwan to Japan in 2019, CAA data showed.
The 11-member delegation, including LDP Deputy Secretary-General Tetsushi Sakamoto, is to return to Japan today.
On Wednesday, the delegation also met with Vice President William Lai （賴清德）, who expressed hope that a major semiconductor investment project from Taiwan in the southern Japanese prefecture would pave the way for more industrial cooperation.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co broke ground on a wafer plant in Kumamoto in April last year, with mass production scheduled to start by the end of next year.
The plant would use the chipmaker’s mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer processes, as well as its 12-nanometer and 16-nanometer FinField effect transistor processes.
Lai asked the delegation to support Taiwan’s bid to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership （CPTPP）.
One of the largest free-trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region, the CPTPP was signed in 2018 by 11 nations: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.
The UK requested accession to the CPTPP in February 2021, and became the first non-founding state to join the bloc in March after more than two years of negotiations.
Taiwan sent its request to join to the CPTPP Secretariat in New Zealand in September 2021, but the CPTPP Commission has not yet decided whether to start negotiations.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
