TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's primary international gateway is preparing for its busiest summer since before the pandemic, with passenger traffic poised to break pre-COVID records on multiple days. Taoyuan International Airport Corporation (桃園國際機場公司), which manages Taiwan's largest airport serving the greater Taipei metropolitan area, announced on Thursday (July 3) that daily passenger numbers will exceed 140,000 on 13 separate days during the peak summer travel season. The projections reflect a dramatic turnaround for Taiwan's aviation sector, which had been severely impacted by pandemic-related travel restrictions over the past several years.
The two-month peak season spanning July 1 to Aug. 31 will see the airport handle 40,359 passenger flights, according to official projections. This robust schedule includes 160 supplementary flights and 26 charter services specifically added to accommodate heightened seasonal demand, bringing the daily flight average to 651 operations. Most significantly, total passenger volume is expected to reach approximately 8.53 million travelers during this period — slightly exceeding the pre-pandemic benchmark of 8.52 million set in 2019 — with daily passenger flows averaging 137,600 people.
Airport officials have pinpointed several critical dates expected to test the facility's capacity limits, including July 10, 17, 27, and 31, along with multiple days in August when daily passenger traffic will surpass 140,000 travelers. August 24 is forecast to be the single busiest day of the summer, with projections indicating a record 141,400 passengers moving through the terminals. In anticipation of potential congestion, airport management has issued advisories urging travelers to arrive three hours before scheduled departures and to utilize automated check-in kiosks, mobile applications, and other digital services to reduce processing delays.
Retail concessionaires throughout the terminal complex have already observed significant upticks in customer traffic since late June, prompting them to increase inventory levels of food items and popular merchandise to satisfy heightened consumer demand. According to official statistics released on June 24, the airport had already processed 19.57 million passengers between January and May this year. The facility subsequently crossed the 20 million passenger threshold on June 4, representing a robust 96.5% recovery compared to the same period in pre-pandemic 2019 — a recovery rate that outpaces many comparable regional transportation hubs.