Since we were to be in Taipei for 6 nights, we decided to get out of Taipei to Taroko Gorge for a day-trip. In order to save time traveling, we joined a day tour from Taipei to Taroko Gorge, flying to the city of Hualien on TransAsia Airways early in the morning and returning back to Taipei by train in the evening. The city of Hualien is only 120km from Taipei and the flight from Taipei to Hualien is the shortest flight I have ever flown on a plane. Probably one of the shortest scheduled flights in the world too? And the route is also probably one of the exotic routes to fly on. It would be interesting to experience such a short domestic flight in Taiwan.
The flight was scheduled to depart from Taipei Songshan, which is the domestic airport (currently also used for limited international services to Japan and Mainland China) right smack in the city center, at 0700hrs. We were picked up from the hotel at 0600hrs and reached the airport just after a 15min drive.
Songshan T2, which is the domestic terminal. The original domestic terminal, T1, has been refurbished and now used for international flights.
At the TransAsia ticketing counter to pick up our air tickets. There were 11 of us in the tour group.
Ticketing counters of other Taiwanese domestic airlines.
Check-in counters for TransAsia flights. Check-in closes 30mins before departure for domestic flights.
Our tour leader in Taipei checked in for us and handed us our boarding passes. It was basically a slip of paper.
02 November 2011
TransAsia Airways
GE 007
Taipei Songshan (TSA) - Hualien (HUN)
ATR 72
B-22811
Economy Class
After issued with boarding passes, the whole group went through security into the boarding lounge. Security was fast and we were soon in the sterile looking departure lounge. Nothing fanciful, just rows of seats, a cafe and boarding gates.
We will be flying TransAsia today!
Our flight will be boarding after the Makung flight.
Lets do some plane spotting! Uni Air MD90.
Mandarin Airlines ERJ190
Finally we are boarding! Will be bussed to the aircraft parked at the remote stand.
On the bus towards our aircraft. Eva Air A332 and JAL B763 parked at the International Terminal ready to operate flights to Haneda.
