Far East Airlines Cuts back on intra-island service

TV & the Tai Tai just told me that Far Eastern Airlines has dramatically reduced its intra-island service. This is due to the HSR operation and pricing.

Any one else have news about this?

They recently reported big losses I think that was around two weeks ago.

HG

FAT is currently under bankruptcy protection. All large Taiwanese airlines want to stop domestic service basically as no flights are really profitable now. And I guess outside of TAiwan island to the offshore islands I guess they should concentrate on international flying. The domestic train and bus network is extremely extensive and quick. The Kaohsiung route was the cash cow for many decades but the HSR took care of that . UNi Air survives because of parent EVA. TransAsia has been in the red for quite some time and I wonder how they remain afloat. Mandarin has (under parent CAL ) been flying overseas for much of its business for quite some time. Of course UNI, TransAsia and FAT have also started in the last few years to do international flying. But they need to do that for the bulk of their flying.

FAT has to be allowed to concentrate on flying to more Asian destinations.

The China / Taiwan flight openings would certainly help.

Far Eastern Group (which owns about 15pct of FAT) has said they would be willing to put in more money (and thus gain more shares) to support the airline. FAT has hundreds of millions of USD of debt and are in dire straits. If you were a billionaire and want to own a Taiwanese airline, now is the time as they are looking for overseas investors too.

The airlines has been in business for over fifty years but will not survive without drastic restructuring .

Taipei Times is reporting that FAT is only paying employees 10,000nt this month (and maybe the rest later). Sounds like they are really going under . Not paying employees salaries is seen in Taiwan as being bankrupt. Which FAT is.

Sinking fast I think.

FAT’s cash cow has been its MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul) work for major carriers. That is about to go also.

Wooo Hoooo!

[quote=“TainanCowboy”]FAT’s cash cow has been its MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul) work for major carriers. That is about to go also.

Wooo Hoooo![/quote]

I didnt know bout that. what did they do and for whom?

What’s weird is that they’ve known this would happen for many many years. I’d have been sending out resumes well before the HSR ever began running if I was a FEAT employee. And yet no, as usual they’ll be doing the street protest “oh poor us! Left hanging in the breeze by management with no warning! How will we feed our children?”

Thing is in Taiwan street protests work. And the govt will be forced to take over FAT and / or merge it with CAL . And be forced to push through reforms in the Aviation scene in TAiwan.

Having little to no domestic flights from Taipei to Kaohsiung can’t be good for a country, right?

It’s amazing how the HSR could be so dominant, since it doesn’t even have a connecting route to the Taoyuan Airport (unless you count buses or shuttles) or is it near the major cities (still a distance from the major business district). Still not all that perfect. Plus it’s 1 hour 30 minutes right? Aren’t flights 40 minutes or so?

I understand fuel being the main culprit, but still, it’s utterly eyepopping that all the domestic flights have been terminated. I freakin hate taking the train when I need to go to the North or South for important business presentations. I also don’t see how I can lug around my luggage when taking the HSR.

Booo!!!

Maybin -

Handcart…collapsible, foldable, easy to use and cheap. Or you could just carry the darn things… :laughing:

Taiwans a small island. The trains make flying not 100pct necessary now.

Back in the day when trains took bout 4 hours to get to KHH from TAipei, it was cool to fly. The 737s would customarily take 35 mins each way (actual wheel up to wheel down time) , while the md82 seems to take just over 30 mins. The airbus A320s took round 40mins (they fly slower but more fuel saving apparently). The bae146 was round 40mins too.

I know a lot of useless info here :slight_smile: :slight_smile: haha

Now why take a plane? YOu still have to get to the airport and go thru security and all that . And get there 30mins before your flight and all that.

Planes are just not needed on intra island flights now on Taiwan. I guess in the near future it will only be from Taiwan island to the offshore islands.