Beginning October 31, flights will take off from Taipei Songshan Airport to Tokyo Haneda Airport, which is expected to benefit domestic leading airlines China Airlines Ltd. and EVA Airways Corp.
A senior official of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) says Taiwan`s CAL and EVA and Japan`s All Nippon Airways Co. (ANA) and Japan Airlines Co. (JAL) each will fly two flights daily between Songshan and Haneda, which will ease insufficient flights between Taiwan and Japan. Travelers will save flight time by two hours each way between Taiwan and Japan as the two airports are in downtown Taipei and Tokyo.
CAL will likely fly the inaugural flight from Haneda Airport to Songshan Airport. To celebrate the inauguration of direct flight, CAL will tie up with Taiwan`s Tourism Bureau to hold prize draws to give away train tickets to attract tourists to Taiwan`s northeastern coast.
EVA will also hold a massive inaugural ceremony.
Both CAL and EVA say 60% of the inaugural flights have been booked and will be fully booked before launch.
The Tourism Bureau expects Japanese tourist arrivals will increase by 1.1 million this year, which will help the local downstream tourism industries.