Taiwan’s Far Eastern Air Transport Announces Suspension of Operations

Taiwan’s Far Eastern Air Transport (FE) announced on its official website on the 12th that, due to long-term operating losses and difficulties raising funds, it will suspend all flight operations starting December 13.

Far Eastern Air Transport was founded in 1957 and initially provided services such as mail transport. In 1962, it began operating scheduled passenger routes. In February 2008, the airline ran into a financial crisis, and in April of the following year, the Taipei District Court approved its bankruptcy reorganization. After that, current chairman Chang Kang-wei took over, and the airline became part of the Huafu Group. The company operated 62 routes serving 47 cities in Taiwan and overseas.

Since the second half of this year, changes in cross-strait policy may have affected Taiwan’s smaller local airlines to some extent.

In November 2016, another Taiwan-based airline, TransAsia Airways (GE), announced its dissolution. Some of its flight attendants were later hired by mainland Chinese airlines, such as XiamenAir.