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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 Taipei, US to discuss added airport screening exemption
Travelers from the US line up to have their carry-on baggage checked while transferring through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in an undated photograph. Photo: Tony Yao, Taipei Times
PLANNING PHASE: Initially limited to travelers transiting from the US, the exemption would cover carry-on baggage and is expected to save travelers 30 to 60 minutes
By Chen Hsin-yu / Staff reporter, with CNA
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to discuss with the US a plan to expand the baggage screening exemption offered to travelers from the US transiting through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to include carry-on luggage, it said yesterday.
The ministry said it hopes the policy will take effect in the second half of the year, adding that it is expected to help US travelers save about 30 to 60 minutes while transiting.
In 2019, the US and Taiwan initiated a one-stop security program that allows travelers from the US transiting through Taoyuan airport to not have their checked baggage screened.
The one-stop security program also applies to people traveling from Canada or New Zealand and transiting through Taoyuan airport.
Department of Navigation and Aviation Deputy Director Han Chen-hua （韓振華） said the planned carry-on baggage exemption would first only apply to travelers from the US, and would hopefully result in more US travelers transiting through Taiwan.
Lin confirmed that Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Lin Kuo-hsien （林國顯）, Taoyuan airport chairman Yang Wei-fuu （楊偉甫） and Aviation Police Bureau officials plan to visit the US next month.
He said that he and other officials would visit Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport late next month, and discuss the exemption plan with the US Department of Homeland Security Transportation Security Administration.
The plan can only be implemented after the Aviation Police Bureau completes an assessment report, he added.
Taoyuan airport’s passenger volume in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, was about 48.68 million, ministry data showed.
Of those, about 2.96 million were transit passengers, roughly 80 percent of whom were on flights between North America and Southeast Asia and including about 75,000 travelers from the US.
Taoyuan airport has conservatively estimated that there could be about 1.2 million travelers transiting through Taiwan this year, Han said.
However, as air traffic has recovered rapidly after COVID-19, the number of travelers transiting through the airport is expected to return to normal levels, he said.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
