Taiwanese regional airline halts all flights

For Far Eastern Air Transport it is a déjà-vu: The Taiwanese regional airline stopped all flights on Thursday evening (12 December). It blames sustained losses and the inability to raise sufficient news funds. Since the beginning of the year, the difficulties had become apparent. The Taiwanese authorities fined Far Eastern Air Transport several times for cancelling an unusually high  flights.

This puts Far Eastern Air Transport back where it was on May 13, 2008. On that date, the airline, which was founded in 1957, had discontinued its flights already a first time. The high price of kerosene and the expansion of the high-speed rail network broke its neck back then. But FAT, as the airline is often called in short, came back.

Big plans

Far Eastern Air Transport resumed operations in April 2011 after a restructuring and a round of new financing. After the end of Transasia after two fatal accidents within a few months, the airline even set out in 2016 to take over the failed competitor. But this did not happen any more. FAT’s fleet most recently consisted of six McDonnell Douglas MD-83 and MD-83 as well as six ATR 72.