Executive Yuan skeptical of Songshan plan

‘SIGNIFICANT REVERSAL’: Without the airport available as a base for military and domestic resources in the city, there would be a critical capability gap, an official said

• By Chung Li-hua and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer and CNA

• • Add TT as Preferred Source

  • 

  • 

  • 

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday attended a Cabinet meeting to discuss his proposal to relocate Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), a week after his re-election campaign unveiled the proposition.

Chiang and the Executive Yuan offered differing accounts of the meeting, with the former emphasizing progress in exploring the proposal and the latter expressing skepticism about the “significant reversal” in the city’s urban development policy.

Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s first and second terminals have a combined capacity of 48 million people a year, which is projected to expand to 70 million with the opening of the third terminal, Chiang said.

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an, center, arrives at the Executive Yuan in Taipei to deliver a report yesterday.

Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times

This increase is more than enough to replace Songshan airport, whose capacity is 5.6 million people, he said.

Asked why he did not make this policy request earlier during his term as mayor, Chiang said that he had filed a recommendation for the removal of Songshan airport to the central government in August last year.

Chiang declined to respond to questions about replacing the airport’s role as a logistics hub for Taiwan’s outlying islands and medical patients requiring air transport.

Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said that this was the first time Chiang discussed relocating the airport with the central government.

Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) strongly hopes that Chiang would explain the significant developmental reversal and provide documentation on the city’s internal discussions to help assist with the project, she added.

Songshan airport is used for accessing the outlying islands, transporting medical patients by air, and international flights, a reserve for Taoyuan airport and doubles as a military airbase for the capital’s defense, she said.

Without Songshan airport, there would be a critical capability gap that is immensely challenging to fill, especially due to its role as the sole airport capable of accommodating E and F type aircraft, she said.

Taoyuan airport’s third terminal is not expected to be completed before 2030, or reach its full operational potential in less than 10 years, she said.

The Executive Yuan would defer to Chiang’s plans for replacing Songshan airport’s vital capabilities, she said.

Separately, Civil Aviation Administration Deputy Director Yang Kuo-feng (楊國?) said that Chiang had previously agreed to the government’s Songshan airport 2040 plan.

Under the plan, approved by the Cabinet in 2023, the airport would become Taiwan’s primary hub for business jets, focusing on flights connecting to regional capitals and cross-strait business hubs, while still providing reliable transport to outlying islands.