Business News
Taipei airport's passenger volume lowest among five Asian airports
By DPA
Aug 4, 2007, 12:35 GMT

Taipei - Taipei's international airport lags far behind major Asia-Pacific airports in passenger volume due to Taiwan's ban on direct air links with China, a government report said on Saturday.

According to the report from the central statistics office, Taoyuan International Airport (TIA), Taiwan's largest located near Taipei, showed the smallest growth in passenger traffic in 2006, compared with four neighbouring airports.

While the Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok international airports handled between 40 million and 66 million passengers in 2006, TIA handled only 22.8 million, about half of the other airports' figure, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.

Among the five airports, TIA was the only one whose 2006 passenger volume was less than 4 million, the report said.

TIA's ranking would slide further if all the major Asian airports were included in the comparison.

For example, Singapore's Changi Airport handled 35 million passengers in 2006, up 8 per cent from 2005, making it the world's 22nd and Asia's sixth busiest airport by passenger traffic.

TIA's 2006 passenger volume was compared with that of four international airports: Tokyo, Beijing, Hong Kong and Bangkok's new Suvarnabhumi airport.

DGBAS did not say where it got the figures from, but it is believed they came from the Geneva-based Airport Council International (ACI), which releases annual airport data.

The figures are: <#>

Airport Number of passengers in 2006

Tokyo International Airport: 65.8 million (up 4 per cent) Beijing International Airport: 48.6 million (up 18.7 per cent) Hong Kong International Airport: 43.8 million (up 8.9 per cent) Bangkok International Airport: 42.8 million (up 9.8 per cent) Taipei International Airport: 22.8 million (up 5.3 per cent) <#>