President Ma Ying-jeou on the morning of April 30 headed to Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei to attend ceremonies marking the commencement of direct flights between Songshan Airport and Seoul's Gimpo International Airport. Besides expressing his delight that the "golden aviation loop in Northeast Asia" has now been completed and that Taiwan has realized its policy of liberalizing the aviation sector, the president said that he expects that this new route will continue to enhance relations between Taiwan and South Korea.
Attending the ceremonies to jointly witness this moment in history were officials including Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國), Taipei City Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Ssu-Tsun Shen (沈斯淳), Government Information Office Minister Philip Y. M. Yang (楊永明), and Korean Mission in Taipei Representative Chung Sang-Ki.
In remarks, the president explained that 14 years ago when he was running for Taipei City mayor, he weighed in on the debate on whether to keep Songshan Airport or close it down. At the time, he insisted that authorities should make every effort to develop Songshan Airport. Eleven years ago, he said, he further advocated the commencement of direct flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, and studied the possibility of a "division of labor" between Songshan Airport and Taoyuan International Airport, with Songshan Airport handling a portion of the passenger flights that would ply cross-strait routes. President Ma furthermore explained that he visited Yokohama in 2005 and at that time began pondering the possibility of initiating direct flights between Taipei and downtown airports in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Seoul. Two years later in 2007, he unveiled his idea of a "golden aviation loop in Northeast Asia" Today, he said, with the commencement of flights between Songshan and Gimpo airports, the final link in this loop has been completed, bringing his vision to fruition before the end of his first term in office.
The president stated that since direct flights started between Songshan Airport and Shanghai's Hongqiao Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport, passenger loads have exceeded 80%. This shows that using the downtown airports not only saves time and money, but also helps to spark commerce and tourism. He pointed out that there is an increasing level of interaction between Taiwan and South Korea, with bilateral trade last year exceeding US$30 billion. In addition, two-way travel between the two nations came to a total of 660,000 trips last year. Given Songshan Airport's advantage of being situated in the vicinity of Taipei's financial district, the president said, he is confident that the route will help further expand markets on each side.
President Ma stated that as an island, Taiwan must develop both shipping and aviation routes. However, due to the small size of Taiwan's domestic market, Taiwan's domestic aviation sector has been significantly impacted by the opening of the high-speed rail line. In response, the government has liberalized cross-strait flights and will also continue to expand the role of Taiwan in international aviation. The president stressed that the commencement of the Songshan-Gimpo route is just the first step. He stated that there is still a lot of room for further improvement, and called upon the government and other interested parties to continue working to develop Taiwan's aviation industry.