The Taichung-Ho Chi Minh City direct flight was successfully launched by VietJet in January under the facilitation of the Taichung City Government. On the 29th of the month, the Taichung-Macao direct flight run by Tigerair Taiwan was also successfully kicked off. Tigerair Taiwan offers daily flights between the two cities, giving travelers even more convenient air travel services. Deputy Secretary-General Kuo Kun-Ming of the Taichung City Government mentioned that the government advocates the tourist travelling model of “To Taichung and from Taichung” in full effort, and set the destinations within 3 to 5 hours of air travel as the objective so as to attract international tourists to Taichung. There were 11 flight destinations established over the last two years, and more will be expected so that more international travelers can visit Taichung more conveniently.

Tigerair Taiwan hosted the opening ceremony to kick off the “Taichung-Macau” route at Taichung International Airport. Deputy Secretary-General Kuo Kun-Ming of the Taichung City Government, Deputy Director of the Taichung City Government Tourism Department Chen Yu-Cheng, Taichung City Councilor Yang Tien-Chung, Director Chang Rai-Shu of Taichung Airport, CAA, Tigerair Taiwan Chairman Chang Hung-Chung and Chief Operating Officer Liao Chung-Liang, Chairman Huang Yao-Deh of the Association of Taichung Tourist Agencies, Executive Vice President Chang You-Kuang of Mandarin Airlines, and President Lai Hsiang-Kuang of China Airlines Taichung Branch were among the guests at the ceremony. Passengers taking the first flight to Taichung were warmly welcomed, while passengers taking the first flight to Macau were also heartily seen off.

“Taichung International Airport is just a tiger with a pair of wings”, said Deputy Secretary-General Kuo. He thanks Tigerair Taiwan for joining the list of carriers at Taichung International Airport in response to the call of the Taichung City Government and the Ministry of Transportation and Communication in pursuing the policy of “To Taichung and from Taichung”. With this arrangement, many more tourists from Asia will be directly brought to central Taiwan for tourist travelling. Likewise, the policies of from Taichung and to Taipei, and to Taichung and from Tainan could also be pursued. More air routes are expected to be offered to serve the tourists traveling in Greater Taichung.

Taichung City will host the World Flora Expo Taichung 2018, and the 2019 Taichung Asian Youth Games, a part of the Olympic Game system. There will be more international events to be held in Taichung and tourists from Asia and other parts of the world are cordially invited to take Taichung as a tourist destination and learn more about the city, Deputy Secretary-General Kuo went on.

Tigerair Taiwan will offer daily direct flights between Taichung and Macao and will serve the population of some 7 million in central Taiwan and 70 million in the Hong Kong-Macau-Pearl River Delta Triangle with high quality and convenient flight services. The launch of this air route is expected to attract tourist from Hong Kong, Macao, and China to travel to central Taiwan through Taichung International Airport, which in turn will help to boost the tourist industry in central Taiwan, said Director Chang Rai-Shu of Taichung Airport.

Tigerair Taiwan is a Taiwanese low-cost airline company that has gained the largest market share and is the only airline company in Taiwan that offers low cost airfare for travelling to Macau from 3 locations in Taiwan. The “Taichung-Macau” route is the third route run by the company in addition to the Taoyaun-Macau and Kaohsiung-Macao routes, all of which are carried by direct flights. The new route will offer one flight daily and the outbound flight from Taichung International Airport is 13:35, while the inbound flight from Macau International Airport is 11:10. The folks in central Taiwan could have another choice for travelling abroad, said Liao Chung-Liang, Chief Operation Officer of Tigerair Taiwan.

According to the Tourism Bureau, Taichung has the advantage of having a sea port and an airport. In the last two years, the Taichung City Government sought to integrate the tourist resources of 7 counties in central Taiwan, thereby launching the tourist traveling model of “To Taichung and from Taichung” for international travelers entering Taiwan. For this cause, enormous effort has been taken to develop more international flight routes with destinations ranging from 3 to 5 hours. This policy has successfully elicited international tourist traveling in central Taiwan with substantial growth of the tourist population every year. The traffic volume of the airport increased from the 1,283,700 passengers by head count to 2,380,000 in last year. This indicates that Taichung International Airport has momentum.

According to the Taichung City Government Tourism Department, Taichung City Government has made positive efforts to make Taichung International Airport the second airport for serving low-cost airlines and aims at emerging as the “Low-Cost Air Travelling Center”. Last year, the government negotiated with more than 10 low-cost airline companies for developing air routes covering Asia in full effort. A number of these airline companies are in the process of responding. VietJet Air already activated its “Taichung-Ho Chi Ming City” routes in January, offering 4 directly flights a week between the destinations. Tigerair Taiwan responded by offering 7 direct flights in the Taichung-Macao route from the 29th of the month. Thai VietJet planned to launch the “Taichung-Bangkok” route with direct flights in June. Mandarin Airlines will increase the flights between Taichung and Hanoi to 7 flights a week. By the end of March, 3 low-cost airlines, VietJet, Tigerair Taiwan, and Hong Kong Express had joined Taichung International Airport in their operation. More airlines of this kind are in the process of discussion on the details of the operation. There will be more international flights to more overseas destinations embarking from Taichung International Airport.

Director Chen Sheng-Shan of the Taichung City Government Tourism Department suggested that passengers of the first flight heading to Macao from Taichung will receive a limited edition first flight postcard from Tigerair Taiwan and also luggage tags and tourist handbooks from the Macao Government Tourist Office. Passengers on the first flight from Macao to Taichung will receive a special souvenir from the Taichung City Government Tourism Department as a commemoration of the first flight.