Kinmen Is Still Waiting for a Seat

The warning is down.

Taiwan’s Central Weather Administration lifted the land warning for Champi at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, and the sea warning at 8:30 p.m. By afternoon Champi was a tropical storm. Overnight the eye had come within about a kilometer of Suao, on the Yilan coast, and turned back to sea. Liberty Times reported the turn.

One person died. A man on Xiaoliuqiu, the island township in Pingtung County, was swept off a beach by the waves on Thursday. The Central Emergency Operations Center, the government’s disaster center, counted 616 injuries by 5 p.m. Saturday. Most were scrapes and bruises.

Taoyuan, the main international airport, cancelled 563 flights on Friday. By 10:15 a.m. Saturday another 261 were gone.

Flights were moving again. The airport company still had 607 takeoffs and landings on the Saturday list, and it asked people to confirm with the airline before coming out.

The National Immigration Agency expected about 114,000 passengers through Taoyuan on Saturday. The earlier forecast for that day, the first of a holiday weekend, was about 157,000. Quieter than the holiday they had planned. You will still meet a crowd if your own flight is one of the ones left.

Singapore Airlines has already named its Friday cuts between Singapore and Taipei: SQ876 and SQ878 westbound, SQ877 and SQ879 back. It said it would contact those passengers. If yours leaves Sunday or Monday, check that ticket on its own. The airline said other flights might still change.

Kinmen and Penghu are where the weekend got stuck.

More than 1,000 people were waiting at Kinmen airport Saturday morning for a flight to the main island. Penghu had more than 1,000 on standby after Friday’s flights to Taiwan were cancelled. The ferry from Kaohsiung added three sailings to Penghu, room for about 1,300 people. Those boats can get people off Penghu, if they can reach the port. Kinmen’s line was in the airport terminal.

By 6 p.m. the Civil Aeronautics Administration, which oversees Taiwan’s airlines, still counted 159 domestic flights cancelled. Airlines had added or enlarged 25 flights for the two islands, most of those flights toward Penghu, 2,251 seats in all. Some extra seats went out Saturday. Kinmen and Penghu still had people without one.

The bureau asked the armed forces to help move people on Sunday and Monday, if the weather holds and the flights stay clear of military duties. On Saturday night that help was still a request.

Songshan, Taipei’s downtown airport, started domestic flights again at 4:15 p.m., and Taipei to Kinmen started at 5:35. A China Airlines flight from Haneda landed in Kaohsiung.

Before a Sunday or Monday departure, confirm the flight with the airline. On Kinmen or Penghu, ask about those added seats before you go back to the terminal.