Far Eastern Air Transport

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For other uses, see Fat (disambiguation).
Far Eastern Air Transport
Far Eastern Air Transport logo.jpg
IATA ICAO Callsign
FE FEA FAR EASTERN
Founded 5 June 1957
Hubs Taipei Songshan Airport
Fleet size 8
Destinations 10
Headquarters Taipei, Taiwan
Key people 張綱維 (pinyin: Zhāng Gāngwéi; Chairperson and Majority Owner)
Website http://www.fat.com.tw/

FAT Taiwan Inc. (simplified Chinese: 远东航空股份有限公司; traditional Chinese: 遠東航空股份有限公司; pinyin: Yuǎndōng Hángkōng Gǔfènyǒuxiàngōngsī), doing business as Far Eastern Air Transport (FAT, simplified Chinese: 远东航空; traditional Chinese: 遠東航空; pinyin: Yuǎndōng Hángkōng), is an airline with its head office in Songshan District, Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China).[1]

FAT headquarters

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.[2] After a chain of financial crises broke out in early 2008, the airline publicly announced its bankruptcy and stopped all flights on and beyond 13 May 2008. The airline restarted its services on April 18, 2011.[3] The airline emerged from bankruptcy restructuring on October 16, 2015.

History

FAT livery in 1972.

The airline was established in 1957 and started operations in November 1957. It originally focused on charter flights until the introduction of scheduled services in January 1965. For the next 30 years this carrier was 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 had 1,220 employees (at March 2007).[2] Beginning in 2004, FAT invested in the Cambodian airline, Angkor Airways. Angkor Airways subsequently shut down flight operations on May 9, 2009. The chairman, Alex Lou(樓文豪) was put into custody by Cambodian police on May 9, 2009 for his alleged breach of trust.[4]

Due to the ever-rising fuel prices and Taiwan High Speed Rail's inauguration, the airline suffered financial losses since early 2007 and the situation was seriously worsened by poor financial management and risky investments. On 13 February 2008 FAT failed to pay the USD 848,000 it owed to the International Clearing House, a financial subsidiary of IATA, and IATA cancelled the airline's membership as a result. Although a local court granted FAT's restructuring application on 23 February 2008, in the next three months it still failed to obtain the necessary funds and the company's bankruptcy protection expired on 22 May. FAT had stopped paying employee salaries but the staff were still on duty as of May 2008 because they wanted to try to save the company but some were saying they could not hold on much longer.[5]

On November 27, 2010, an MD-83 (aircraft registration number: B-28025) of FAT began flight test at Taipei Songshan Airport at 10am. The plane successfully landed and returned to the airport at 12:20pm. The aviation authority in Taiwan granted a test flight license to FAT but required an additional test flight and $50 million New Taiwan Dollar as deposit before the re-granting an airline operating license.[6] The airline restarted its services on April 18, 2011.

Destinations

Boeing 757-27A "B-27013" from Far Eastern Air Transport in Kaohsiung in October 2006

Far Eastern Air Transport currently operates the following services

 Cambodia
 China
 South Korea
 Philippines
 Taiwan
 Vietnam

Former destinations

  • Indonesia: Bali
  • Malaysia: Kota Kinabalu
  • North Korea: Pyongyang
  • Palau - Koror
  • Philippines: Laoag
  • South Korea : Busan, Jeju, Seoul
  • Taiwan: Hualien, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taitung
  • Vietnam : Hanoi

Fleet

Far Eastern Air Transport MD-82 at Taipei Songshan Airport

The Far Eastern Air Transport fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of February 2015):[8]

Far Eastern Air Transport Fleet
Fleet In Service Orders Passengers
(All Economy)		 Notes
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
4
—
165
McDonnell Douglas MD-83
4
—
165
Boeing 737-800
—
2
—
 1 new and 1 used leased from ALC;[9][10] joining the fleet starting from 2016; up to 20 planned
Total 8
—

Future fleet plans

Far Eastern Air Transport initially planned to put 2 B757-200 back into service by the end of 2014, however this was abandoned due to the 757s' deteriorating condition suffered during years of non-operation. FAT now planned to order new B737-800 aircraft to replace its aging MD-82 and MD-83 fleet.

Previously operated

Incidents and accidents

References

  1. ↑ Home page. Far Eastern Air Transport. Retrieved on January 6, 2011. "地址：台北市敦化北路405巷123弄5號 " - Map (Archive)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2008/new/may/1/today-life1-2.htm
  5. ↑ [1]
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ http://airlineroute.net/2014/05/12/fe-may14/
  8. ↑ Far Eastern Air Transport Fleet Details and History
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ "AIRLINER THAT CRASHED IN TAIWAN, KILLING 110, HAD PRESSURE SNAGS." The New York Times.
  20. ↑ http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2013/04/14/2003559575

External links

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