Taiwan’s civil aviation authority has taken away Far Eastern Air Transport’s (FAT) domestic traffic rights but the grounded carrier has retained its international traffic rights for the time being.
A FAT spokeswoman in Taipei says Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has stripped the airline of its domestic traffic rights.
The spokeswoman was responding to news reports in Taiwan quoting from the CAA.
She says even though the CAA has announced its decision to the news media, the airline has yet to receive the decision officially in writing.
The spokeswoman also says the CAA has stopped short of taking away the airline’s international traffic rights.
Reports in Taiwan’s news media quote the CAA as saying it let FAT retain its international traffic rights for the time being because the airline told the CAA it will receive a cash injection by 15 June.
But the FAT official that ATI, flightglobal.com's sister premium news site, spoke to today was unable to confirm if the airline will in fact receive a cash injection by 15 June and was unaware that the airline had made this claim in its submission to the CAA.
FAT’s entire operation has been grounded since 13 May because the airline is in debt and needs an injection of cash.
The current owners are trying to attract new investors to try and revive the business.
FAT was operating domestically as well as internationally to countries such as Cambodia, Japan and South Korea using its fleet of Boeing MD-80 series aircraft and Boeing 757s.
The FAT spokeswoman says the airline has around 15 aircraft but only four that it owns.
Source: flightglobal.com's sister premium news site Air Transport Intelligence news
Source: Flight International
