Economic development has driven demand for tourism and business air transport. Taichung International Airport, an important gateway for more than seven million people in Central Taiwan, is facing a huge increase in the number of passengers and is in urgent need of expansion. However, it is stuck in military-civilian use restrictions. The development plan formulated five years ago has only completed the overall improvement of the existing terminal and the construction of new connections and apron taxiways. The third terminal, remote apron, and aerospace industry zone have become the focus of the election campaign again.
More than 30 international routes
Taichung Airport currently has more than 30 international routes, and the passenger volume in the first seven months of this year reached more than 2.01 million. It is estimated that the total passenger volume this year will increase from 2.75 million last year, and may even exceed 3 million passengers. However, there are only two luggage carousels at Taichung Airport, and most international flights arrive in the afternoon. If two flights arrive at the same time, passengers will have to wait for about half an hour to get their luggage. Parking is also a big problem, and even a fake parking lot is hard to find.
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The Qingquangang Base of the Air Force, where Taichung Airport is located, is divided into Yangdong District and Yangxi District based on the runway. Yangdong District is used by the military. Although Yangxi District is within the scope of civil aircraft operations, most of the land belongs to the Air Force. Military aircraft take priority for takeoffs and landings on the runway. The military land is blocked and construction in Yangxi District is difficult, which has become the biggest problem in the development of Taichung Airport.
He Xinchun: Build a new third terminal as soon as possible
Taiwan's neutrality committee member He Xinchun believes that in the short term, the airport must be built first and the luggage carousel. In the medium and long term, the central government is required to coordinate the land division of the Ministry of National Defense and the military flight curfew time, and build a third terminal as soon as possible. The Ministry of Transportation and the Civil Aviation Administration must submit the Taichung Airport 2045 overall plan before the end of the year.
Jiang Qichen: The central government should provide an enforceable timetable
Taiwan neutral committee member Jiang Qichen said that the third terminal of Taichung Airport was included in the next phase of the project as early as 2019. The central government must clarify where it is stuck? Faced with restrictions on military-civilian use, the central government should proactively coordinate and propose an executable and trackable construction schedule while taking into account national defense and aviation safety.
Legislator Tsai Chi-chang also said that adding parking spaces, building temporary parking lots or introducing a transfer mechanism should be evaluated as soon as possible to accelerate the Taichung Airport Gateway project.
Lin Guoxian, deputy director of the Ministry of Transportation, pointed out that the land area used by the Taichung Airport Civil Aviation Terminal is only 30 hectares, or about 2%. In the future, it will need to enter Yangxi District to have enough space. The Civil Aviation Administration of China stated that in principle, major international airports undergo "overall planning" revisions every five years. The 2045 overall plans for Songshan, Taichung and Kaohsiung airports are currently under continuous review and revision in accordance with the established schedule and will be submitted upon completion.
Huang Tailin, a professor at the Department of Aviation Management at Evergreen University, analyzed that perhaps the Civil Aviation Administration considers the balance between the north and the south. The airspace of Taichung and Taoyuan airports is closer, while the south and north are longer distances, so construction is in order.
Scholars suggest building a dedicated aircraft maintenance area quickly
Lu Yanliang, director of the Aviation Department of the Chaoyang University of Science and Technology, said that Taichung Airport is restricted from being a gateway to the central region and is difficult to develop due to its uniqueness of military-civilian use. He suggested accelerating the approval and construction of the Orange Line of the Taichung MRT, evaluating the elevated approaches from national highways to the airport, building a three-dimensional parking lot on peripheral public land, starting the planning and environmental assessment of the third terminal, improving operational efficiency, and speeding up the construction of an "aircraft maintenance zone" by combining the advantages of the aerospace and precision machinery clusters in central China.
