EDITORIAL: Airports are not an election gambit

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) on Oct. 8 announced a plan to remove Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) and use the space to build an artificial intelligence (AI) park. The announcement came less than two months before the nine-in-one local elections, and the most fiercely contested Taipei mayoral race.

Plans to relocate the airport is not a new idea. Most former Taipei mayors and mayoral candidates have presented plans to remove or transform it.

Unlike former Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) mayors Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Hau Lung-bin’s (郝龍斌) plans to transform the airport into a regional business airport, or Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) mayor Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) proposal to move it to Greater Taipei’s suburban districts, Chiang proposed that the airport be completely decommissioned and transformed into an AI park, which would house an AI industrial cluster, residential facilities and green parkland, aiming to host 200 enterprises and accommodate 35,000 residents.

However, as a civilian-military airport, Songshan shoulders multiple missions, including connecting international and domestic routes, providing transportation services for outlying islands and eastern Taiwan, and being a resource node in the national defense system. If the airport could be easily removed without a proper replacement, all previous proposals would have been completed years ago.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said the number of residents in outlying islands seeking medical treatment and emergency care in Taiwan proper totaled 38,651 last year. There are nine medical centers within a half-hour drive from the airport, making it a crucial medical and emergency transit center for these residents.

Although Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and the High Speed Railway have taken over major international and domestic transportation duties, Songshan airport remains a vital transportation hub for domestic, outlying islands, cross-strait and northeast Asian flights.

The airport is also part of regional military protection, anti-decapitation defense, and disaster response and rescue. Amid rising cross-strait tensions, the Ministry of National Defense has repeatedly said that plans to relocate or transform the airport should prioritize military missions and national defense resilience.

Chiang’s plan is to transfer Songshan airport’s traffic to the Taoyuan airport, which is set to complete its third terminal and runway construction around 2033. However, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said that would severely impact the capacity and efficiency of the Taoyuan airport, and that the new terminal and runway are being built to meet rising international traffic demand, not domestic transportation.

Shifting outlying islands’ air transport to Taoyuan would also greatly inconvenience residents from those areas and could even lead to medical delays.

Politicians and residents of outlying islands and even KMT members have voiced their objections to Chiang’s proposal. A TVBS poll showed that 41 percent of respondents opposed the plan, while 31 percent supported it.

Tech leaders have also questioned the feasibility and benefits of Chiang’s proposal. Pegatron chairman Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢) publicly opposed the plan and suggested that AI parks be built in areas with greater potential for power and land expansion, such as the Danhai New Town (淡海新市鎮), instead of the congested Taipei area.

There is no need to sacrifice a city’s airport for AI development. Major international metropolitan cities generally retain or build secondary airports near their city centers, such as Tokyo’s Haneda Airport and Seoul’s Gimpo Airport, to accommodate international business exchanges.

The Executive Yuan in 2023 also approved a “Songshan International Airport 2040 Master Plan,” designating it as a key capital metropolitan business airport, and formulating a “Taoyuan-Songshan” dual-airport model in which the two airports would complement each other — serving business aviation and providing alternate transportation during contingencies.

Chiang’s plan has been criticized as an election stunt. Ironically, during a Taipei legislative by-election in 2023, Chiang slammed then-DPP candidate Enoch Wu’s (吳怡農) proposal to relocate Songshan airport, calling it “a hasty proposal for election.” Now, Chiang has not only suggested the same idea, but also brought it up at the last minute. He had never submitted a proposal about transforming the airport to the central government during his nearly four-year tenure as mayor.

Given the wide-ranging impact of relocating the airport, the issue needs a thorough assessment and discussion. It should not be hastily brought up as a hollow campaign promise.