Hengchun Airport () is an airport in Renshou Village, Hengchun Township,

Pingtung County Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pi ...

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 no ...

. The airport is near

Kenting National Park Kenting National Park (), commonly known as Kenting (), is a national park located on the Hengchun Peninsula of Pingtung County, Taiwan, covering Hengchun, Checheng, and Manzhou Townships. Established on 1 January 1984, it is Taiwan's oldest ...

and is the southernmost airport in

. Due to its location, the airport frequently experiences strong

katabatic wind A katabatic wind (named from the Greek word κατάβασις ''katabasis'', meaning "descending") is a drainage wind, a wind that carries high-density air from a higher elevation down a slope under the force of gravity. Such winds are sometim ...

s and is forced to close. Because of this, the load factor of the flights rarely exceeds 40%; airlines are considering filing applications for withdrawal of services to Hengchun. Scheduled flights ceased in September 2014. In late May 2019, Taiwanese carrier, Uni Air has announced that they will be officially ending flights from

Taipei Songshan Airport Taipei Songshan Airport is a regional airport and military airbase located in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan. The airport covers an area of . The civilian section of Songshan Airport has scheduled flights to domestic destinations in Taiwa ...

to Hengchun after they suspended flights from Taipei Songshan Airport to Hengchun back in September 2014.

History

The airport construction was finished in 2003 and opened to public in January 2004 with a cost of NT$539,000,000. However, since the opening of

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, there has been a sharp decline in the number of passengers using the airport. Since August 2014 until today, the airport has not processed any passenger. In 2014 alone, the airport only served around 768 passengers, down from 23,000 passengers in its inaugural year of 2004. In October 2015, the Civil Aeronautics Administration announced that they will make a decision whether to close the airport in the second half of 2016 due to the extremely low passenger rate. In 2019, the last route was cancelled.

References

External links

Objectives of Airport
2004 establishments in Taiwan Airports established in 2004 Airports in Pingtung County {{Taiwan-airport-stub

History

See also

References

External links