Far_Eastern_Air_Transport

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Far Eastern Air Transport

Far Eastern Air Transport(遠東航空) is a defunct airline based in Taipei, Taiwan. Established in 1957, it operated domestic services from Taipei and Kaohsiung to five regional cities and international services to Southeast Asia, South Korea and Palau. Its main base was Taipei Songshan Airport. After a chain of financial crisis broke out in early 2008, the airline publicly announced its bankruptcy and stopped all flights on and beyond May 13, 2008, ending its 51-year history.

History

The airline was established in 1957 and started operations in November 1957. It was the first privately owned airline in Taiwan. It originally focused on charter flights until the introduction of scheduled services in January 1965. For the coming 30 years this carrier had been the No. 1 brand in Taiwanese domestic routes and was granted the right to fly regular international flights in 1996, from Kaohsiung International Airport to Palau and Subic Bay. It started cargo operations in the Asian region in 2004. The airline has 1,220 employees (at March 2007).

Due to the ever-rising fuel prices and Taiwan High Speed Rail's inauguration, this carrier has been suffering financial loss since early 2007 and the situation was seriously worsened by this airline's poor financial management and risky investments. On February 13, 2008 this carrier failed to pay the USD 848,000 it owed to the International Clearing House, a financial subsidiary of IATA, and IATA cancelled this carrier's membership as a result. Although local court granted this carrier's restructuring application on February 23, 2008, in the next 3 months this carrier still failed to obtain the necessary funds and the company's bankruptcy protection expired on 22 May . FAT has stopped paying employee salaries but the staff are still on duty as of May 2008 because they want to try and save the company but there are some that are saying they cannot hold on much longer. The airline’s owners now face mounting pressure from the Taiwan Government, news media, unionists and the general public to come to a final decision on whether to inject more money into the business to save it.*

Destinations

Far Eastern Air Transport operated the following services (at January 2005):

Domestic scheduled destinations: Hualien, Kaohsiung, Kinmen, Makung, Tainan, Taipei and Taitung.

International scheduled destinations:

Incidents and accidents

On August 22,1981, Flight 103 a Boeing 737 broke up during flight. Severe corrosion in the fuselage structure which led to an explosive decompression and breakup at high altitude. All 110 on board were killed.