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Government vows review following Taoyuan airport disruptions
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) says it’s conducting a "full review" of runway maintenance work at Taoyuan International Airport following a second-day of mass flight disruptions.
The airport's southern runway has been closed to air traffic since 10AM on Sunday for annual maintenance work that had been planned since the end of last year. However, despite having several months to adjust scheduling, only 53% of Sunday's 698 flights were on time and the disruptions continued into Monday.
Deputy transport Minister Lin Kuo-Shian says a "lack of consideration" led to worse-than-expected disruptions, as the scope of this year's annual maintenance was larger than in previous years, when the runways were only closed for hours rather than days.
However, Lin is blaming other parties for the disruption, including the Taoyuan International Airport Corporation. The deputy transport minister said the airport operator and the airlines failed to make comprehensive adjustments to accommodate the maintenance work. It also failed to realize that traffic was heavier - with more than 600 flights a day.
Lin also says the airport operator will be obliged to notify the public in advance prior to maintenance work in the future.
