Chiayi Airport () , commonly known as Shueishang Airport (), is an airport in Shuishang Township,

Chiayi County Chiayi County ( Mandarin pinyin: ''jiā yì xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Ka-gī-koān'') is a county in southwestern Taiwan surrounding but not including Chiayi City. It is the sixth largest county in Taiwan. Name The former Chinese placename wa ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. The airport has one runway, and it is used as a civilian airport and is co-located next to Chiayi Air Base. Chiayi Airport is envisioned as a gateway to the Alishan National Scenic Area, a popular tourist destination in Taiwan. Opened in 1976, Chiayi Airport was one of the airports in Taiwan that were severely affected by the opening of the

Taiwan High Speed Rail Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is the high-speed railway of Taiwan consisting of one line that runs approximately along the west coast, from the capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. With construction and operations managed by a pri ...

in 2007. Uni Air is the sole operator of scheduled flights to the airport. Although listed as an international airport by the Taiwanese government, the joint use of Chiayi Airport's facilities by the

Republic of China Air Force The Republic of China Air Force, retroactively known by its historical name the Chinese Air Force and unofficially referred to as the Taiwanese Air Force, is the military aviation branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces, currently based ...

and the lack of complete customs and immigration facilities at the airport restricts the use of the airport by international flights. As such, the airport has no scheduled international flights; it is only served internationally by occasional chartered flights.

History

A departure lounge was completed on the grounds of Chiayi Air Base on 19 May 1976, marking the start of operations at Chiayi Airport.

China Airlines China Airlines (CAL; ) is the state-owned flag carrier of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and one of its two major airlines along with EVA Air. It is headquartered in Taoyuan International Airport and operates over 1,400 flights weekly (in ...

launched the inaugural flight, providing trice-weekly flights between Taipei and Chiayi. Due to the growth in passenger numbers at the airport, a terminal building was built in 1977 and opened on 1 January 1978. In 1990, Great China Air took over China Airlines' route at Chiayi Airport. At the same time, it also launched flights to Kinmen Airport and Penghu Airport.

TransAsia Airways TransAsia Airways (TNA, until January 1992 known by its Chinese-translated name Foshing Airlines;For historical pictures with "Foshing Airlines" on it, see: ) was a Taiwanese airline based in Neihu District in Taipei. Though the company starte ...

, Far Eastern Air Transport and Formosa Airlines all launched flights at Chiayi Airport between 1994 and 1996. Meanwhile, Chiayi Airport's terminal was expanded and refurbished in 1995 to handle the increased number of passengers using the airport. In 1995, the airport served over a million passengers for the first time. The airport was reclassified as a B-class airport in 1996. However, in 1999, the number of services to Chiayi Airport decreased when Formosa Airlines withdrew from its operations at Chiayi Airport in the aftermath of an air crash over

Hsinchu Hsinchu (, Chinese: 新竹, Pinyin: ''Xīnzhú'', Wade–Giles: ''Hsin¹-chu²'') is a city located in northwestern Taiwan. It is the most populous city in Taiwan Province not among the special municipalities, with estimated 450,655 inhabi ...

. This was followed by the successive withdrawals of Far Eastern Air Transport and TransAsia Airways in 2001 and 2002 respectively due to poor load factors caused by a slowing local economy. These withdraws left Uni Air, the successor of Great China Air, as the only operator of flights at Chiayi Airport. With the launch of the

in 2007, which links Chiayi to Taipei, demand for flights between Taipei and Chiayi declined significantly. This forced Uni Air to cancel its twice-daily flights between Taipei and Chiayi in August 2015. The Taiwanese Government gave Chiayi Airport an "International Airport" status in December 2012 in a bid to boost local tourism. Chiayi Airport was subsequently added to the list of airports where direct cross-straits flights between China and Taiwan are allowed in 2013. A series of charter flights between Chiayi and

Shizuoka Airport , also called Mt. Fuji Shizuoka Airport, is located in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. Opened on June 4, 2009, the airport has domestic service to Sapporo, Fukuoka, Naha (Okinawa), Komatsu, Kumamoto, and Kagoshima. International routes connect it ...

was launched by

that year, making them the first international flight from Chiayi Airport. This was followed by the launch of the first direct flight between Chiayi and a Mainland Chinese airport, a charter flight by

Spring Airlines Spring Airlines Co., Ltd. () is a low-cost carrier with its headquarters in the Homeyo Hotel () in Changning District, Shanghai, China. While the company adopted the English name "Spring Airlines", the Chinese name literally means "Spring Autum ...

Shanghai Pudong International Airport Shanghai Pudong International Airport is one of two international airports serving Shanghai and a major aviation hub of East Asia. Pudong Airport serves both international flights and a smaller number of domestic fights, while the city's oth ...

, in May 2014.

Facilities

Chiayi Airport has an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Ver ...

of 85 feet (26 metres). It had two parallel

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concre ...

s, designated 18R/36L (now 18/36) and 18L/36R (currently closed and converted to taxiway). 18/36 measures 3050 metres by 45 metres (10007 feet by 148 feet) and is made of

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

, while the shorter 18L/36R

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

runway (closed and now use for taxiing) measured 1618 metres by 23 metres (5307 feet by 74 feet). Only runway 18/36 is equipped with an

instrument landing system In aviation, the instrument landing system (ILS) is a precision radio navigation system that provides short-range guidance to aircraft to allow them to approach a runway at night or in bad weather. In its original form, it allows an aircraft to ...

. The runways and

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

s facilities at Chiayi Airport are shared with Chiayi Air Base. Chiayi Airport has 3 aircraft stands that are capable of accommodating aircraft types such as the

McDonnell Douglas MD-90 The McDonnell Douglas (later Boeing) MD-90 is an American five-abreast single-aisle airliner developed by McDonnell Douglas from its successful model MD-80. The airliner was produced by the developer company until 1997 and then by Boeing Comme ...

and

ATR 72 The ATR 72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed and produced in France and Italy by aircraft manufacturer ATR (french: Avions de transport régional or it, Aerei da Trasporto Regionale), a joint venture formed ...

. Its 1,717- square metre terminal has a capacity of 222,000 a year, while its 45-square metre cargo facility is able to handle 19,035

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

of cargo annually. The airport has limited customs and immigration facilities that allows the airport to handle international flights.

Airlines and destinations

References

External links

Chiayi Airport
{{Airports in Taiwan 1978 establishments in Taiwan Airports established in 1978 Airports in Taiwan Buildings and structures in Chiayi County Transportation in Chiayi County

History

Facilities

Airlines and destinations

See also

References

External links