TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Transit passengers at Taiwan airports will be charged a NT$500 (US$16.26) facility fee beginning March 31.
The charge will be collected by airlines when tickets are issued and is in-line with other regional airports, such as Japan’s Narita Airport (NT$360, US$10), South Korea’s Incheon Airport (NT$250), and Singapore’s Changi Airport (NT$200), according to the Department of Aviation and Navigation Deputy Director-General Han Chen-hua (韓振華), per UDN.
Han said airline passengers holding tickets issued before the transit fees go into effect will be asked to pay at airline counters during check-in. He added the transit fee will have little effect on Taiwan citizens as most transit passengers are foreigners traveling onward to other destinations.
The transit fee is expected to result in NT$550 million (US$18 million) in revenue this year for Taoyuan International Airport, an important stop-gap financial measure as the airport suffered a COVID-related drop in passengers from 2019-2022. The airport previously charged a service fee only for outbound passengers.
In 2019, the airport had approximately 24 million outbound passengers, resulting in NT$10.6 billion in airport service fees. By 2021, passenger volume had plummeted to only 2% of pre-pandemic levels.
It is expected that recovering passenger volume will allow the airport to generate more service fees. This is in addition to the soon-to-be enacted transit fees, funding ongoing construction at Taoyuan International Airport, as well as a new terminal at Kaohsiung International Airport.
