Do you feel that operations at the CKS Airport are up-to-par with international standards?
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Yes. It is not too bad. The new terminal is very good, although it isn’t as well designed as the one in HK.
I still have doubts about the Singapore Airlines crash a few weeks back. How could the tower not know that the plane was going down the wrong runway?
For those of you who have been in Taiwan for a long time, has TPE changed a lot in the past twenty some years?
My experience starting from maybe several years ago when I first visited TPE is that the operations are up to par but certainly lacking compared to other major airports in Asia.
Here are the latest Skytrax rankings:
I think it would be great if Taiwan was able to get Taoyuan (TPE) at least somewhere in the top 20.
Hong Kong fell back 10 places since last year (from 10th to 20th), and I think it would help Taiwan’s recognition and brand power if Taoyuan became a stronger hub. Singapore, Japan, and Korea all have airports in the top 10.
TPE is kind of like a metaphor for Taiwan: it’s functional, parts of it are not very flashy, some parts look nicer (example: the award-winning renovation of Terminal 1; the new upper level zone in Terminal 2), some parts are still a bit rough—and overall it works.
Good enough for me. 
Guy
Yeah!
I’m excited for the new Terminal 3 as well.
No idea how that will turn out. Wasn’t that planned for the low cost carriers? With the shocks in the system (via COVID mostly; decoupling with China will also be part of the story), I wonder how much more capacity they really need now.
Guy
Hmm, not sure if it’s for low-cost carriers, but I recently saw some mock-up of Terminal 3, and it looked pretty sleek.
But yeah, that’s a good point… not sure how much more capacity they need.
This recent article is an interesting read though! Sounds like they want TPE to be a hub and are expecting more and more cargo traffic at least
Airports like Singapore and Hong Kong have a huge proportion of their passenger traffic who just Transit (off one flight and onto another) and there can be some big time gaps between the two, so they need to cater for those people. On the other hand, places like Taoyuan are mostly the start and end airports, so it’s a matter of getting in and out that matters more (for me anyway), and that means getting through Immigration and Baggage delivery and transport to and from the Airport. Taoyuan has done well in that respect over the years with things like E-Gate, the MRT, though Baggage delivery can be a bit slow in peak times. Some airports are just too big for their own good, Heathrow being a prime example, it’s a nightmare.
Oh, yes, and compared to places like Toronto Pearson—wow TPE is great!
Guy
NOTHING could be as bad as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport IMO… except maybe other airports in the States. I’m sure we’re all getting tired of covid paranoia, but Sea-Tac is a whole other level of inefficiency.
I can get from the lineup to the gate in 20 minutes. That supercedes any flashy bullshit in my books.
CDG is pretty bad. You want to go from one terminal to an adjacent one to catch a transfer, but because of renovations (and there are always renovations!) they send you down some escalators, up somewhere else, then you walk for a while, down another elevator, take a bus for a bit, up another elevator, skywalk, walk in a big circle for a bit, down an elevator, take another bus, and up another elevator. I wish I was joking, but this happened to me multiple times over the years with different permutations.
Reminds me of this one time Sea-Tac was doing renovations. After leaving the plane one of the workers there sent us down the wrong (temporary) hallway. We ended up in the baggage claim, having completely bypassed immigration. We could have entered the country illegally and they would have had no idea. Being the law-abiding people we are, we retraced our steps and eventually found our way into passport control.
Couldn’t find a more suitable thread, but this seems pretty steep, no? NT$500 per passenger just for transiting through a Taiwanese airport:
Also found this previous article from the “mulling” phase in December (just three weeks ago, which seems quite quick for a mull):
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of transit passengers fell by 90%, but airlines predict that next year, the number might return to 80% of pre-COVID levels. The proportion of transit passengers is likely to reach 20% of all travelers, TIAC said, adding that it hopes to encourage travelers from Europe to use Taoyuan as a transit point.
I’m surprised that Taoyuan has so many transit passengers actually. I never thought of it as much of a regional or global hub.
EVA, for one, has historically offered cutthroat fares for say Hanoi-Taipei-Los Angeles tickets. I’m not sure what the fare structure is like nowadays for transiting passengers, but I do know that this was absolutely part of their plan to grow their market share (while also, it must be said, fleecing origin-destination passengers starting their journeys in Taiwan, where we pay a premium!).
Guy
I guess it might not work out as too much for transcontinental routes like the one you mentioned, but for regional ones it seems like a fair chunk of a typical ticket.
Though Taiwan has always been a starting or end destination for me, and I’ve never transited through here. And yeah, some of the prices to fly out to Southeast Asia using local airlines always seemed quite extortionate to me (compared with budget airlines - literally like 2-3x the price).
Bangkok hits you with a surprise exit tax of 500 baht no matter where you’re going. Fucking leeches.
Didn’t know that either. And it seems like it’s now 700 baht…
Between 2013 and 2019 TPE was constantly the 10th or 11th busiest international airpot in the world.
It’s just not very famous because Taiwanese people don’t brag.