Taipei Taoyuan International

I took a taxi from the Sheraton Hotel to the airport, where I arrived quicker than expected, given that the most traffic was into downtown Taipei and not in the direction I was traveling.

The taxi driver dropped me just in front of the counters of Cathay Pacific at terminal 1 of Taipei’s Taoyuan Airport.

Taipei Taoyuan International Airport is located 40 km west of Taipei in Dayuan District close to the city of Taoyuan. It was opened in February 1979 after its planning and construction began in the 1970s. The predecessor of Taoyuan was Taipei Songshan airport, which served as international airport prior to the opening of the new airport. Currently domestic flights and flights to Mainland China operate from Songshan Airport. The name of the new airport during the planning was actually Taoyuan International Airport, but in memory of former President Chiang Kai-Shek, the name was later changed to Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) International Airport. The first time I flew into Taipei in 2004, it was still known of Taipei Chiang Kai Shek (CKS) International Airport. But following the recent trend and political development to eliminate the name of Chiang Kai-Shek from official buildings, the airport was renamed in 2006 to Taouyan International Airport. Interestingly, in all official IATA records, the airport is sill know as Chiang Kai-Shek (CKS) International Airports while media in mainland China had always referred to the airport as “Taoyuan International Airport”. The airport was expanded by the addition of a second terminal in 2000, which is mainly used by Eva Airways and some of China Airlines flights. As the airport is already operating close to its limits, there is currently an expansion project for terminal 2 planed. In addition, there are plans and consideration for a third terminal.

I approached the Cathay Pacific Business Class Counters, which were busy assisting other passengers, but after less than a minute one agent became available. She asked for my passport and I handed her my passport and also my frequent flyer card. She was a bit confused, as there was conflicting information on her screen. On the one hand, my flight from Hong Kong to Surabaya on August 13 was delayed from a scheduled departure time of 15:35 to 03:45 on August 14. However, the booking in the Amadeus system was not updated yet and still showed an on time departure. Since the luggage was only checked to Hong Kong, the onward journey was as of today not a problem and I was advised to check with staff in Hong Kong.

I also was informed that the lounge in Taipei was undergoing renovation and therefore closed. I was given an invitation to the GE TransAir Asia Lounge, which served customers of Cathay during the renovation together with other lounges. There was a discussion in the Cathay Pacific forum at flyertalk about the renovation and it seems, that the lounges Cathay Pacific used for its passengers changes throughout the day as some passengers were also invited to the “The More Lounge” and the “China Airlines Lounge”, the later also used by Malaysian Airlines.

I took the escalator upstairs, where the security check point is located. There was only a short line and I passed it quickly without need for a manual search. Immigration had also only very few people queuing and soon I were on my way to the lounge.

The lounge (also a Priority Pass Lounge) is located along with all other lounges in terminal 1 one floor up from the main concourse and does not offer any windows other than the hallway. The lounge was not busy as I entered it but became busier depending on the flights of either TransAir Asia or Cathay Pacific. There was a buffet offering dim-sum, fried noodles and sausages and also a noodle bar. A selection of soft drinks and also of wine, even Champagne, was available. I grabbed a can of tonic water and took one of the many empty seats. WiFi was available by the airport and signal quite strong to set up a stable VPN connection. I checked e-mails, researched the flight schedule for Surabaya and the activity of Mt. Raung. Time passed quickly and before I left, I order one of the available noodle soups, which was delivered to my seat a few minutes later. Usually you receive a pager, but given that there were not many passengers in the lounge, the staff decided to serve the soup to my seat. It tasted quite good and was very hot.

Soon, it was time to head to my gate, where boarding started the very same second as I stepped on the stairs leading to the waiting area. As passengers traveling in Business Class and Oneworld elites were invited to board the plane, I walked straight to the podium, where my boarding pass was once again checked. Soon later I was walking through the left jetbridge, which was attached to the front door of our Airbus A 330 bound for Hong Kong.

12 August 2015
TPE – HKG
[Taipei Taoyuan International – Hong Kong International]
CX 565 (Cathay Pacific); Airbus A330-300 (B-LBG)
Gate B 7
13:55 – 15:45 [effective 13:53 – 15:57]
Business Class
Seat 17 A

I was the first passengers entering the plane and used this opportunity to take a few quick pictures of the cabin.

Our flights today was operated by a quite new Airbus A 330-343 with registration B-LBG, which made is maiden flight exactly one year prior to this flights on August 12, 2014. It was delivered to Cathay on September 23, 2014 in Toulouse and is powered by two Rolls Royce Trent 772B-60 engines. Each of the two engines had a thrust of 71,100 lb and a weight of 10,550 lb or 4.785 tons.
Cathay Pacific was the first airline to choose Rolls Royce Trent 700 engines for their ordered ten Airbus A330 in the 90ies. The engine war certificated with an ETOPS 90 rating in March 1995, which was extended to 120 minutes in December 1995 and finally 180 minutes in May 1996.

The plane was equipped with 42 seats of the new Regional Business Class in a 2 – 2 – 2 layout. Other than the configuration, there is not much different from the Regional Business Class on the 777 I flew from Hong Kong to Taipei a couple of day earlier.

I stored my belongings in the overhead compartment and the compartment under the seat in front of me. A pillow was placed on the seat, while blankets had to be requested by the flight attendant.

Pre-departure drink

orange juice

A pre-departure drink was offered, which was a choice of orange juice, apple juice, water and of course champagne. I went with the orange juice this time. The cabin filled with people and Business Class was completely booked on this flight and Economy Class as well I think.

The second air bridge leading to the second door for Economy Class was already disengaged and only the front door remained open till all formalities were done and some last minute passengers boarded the plane.

A refreshing and lightly scented hot towel was offered while we were still at the gate in Taipei, where the captain has already welcomed us on board. He mentioned the flight time with round about 1:20 but announced that given the heavy traffic in and out of Hong Kong there might be a delay and he will update us ahead of our arrival. Weather should be clear, with some clouds.
The safety video followed after the purser of our flight has welcomed us as well. The immigration cards for Hong Kong were also distributed.


While the safety video was already playing on the screen, the plane was pushed back. We taxied to the runway 23 L, but had to queue as during my trip in August only one runway was in use at TPE. This gave me the opportunity to do some plane spotting as a number of cargo planes of China Airlines were parked in front of the hangars or in the hangars undergoing some maintenance checks.

While we pulled further to the entrance to the runway I was able to spot the arriving planes. Taipei was quite busy and one could see the planes arriving. After a China Airlines 747-400 has approached we pulled on the runway and I could see the lights of the next approaching plane already see. We did not have to wait long and after a few second standing on the runway, the captain powered the engines to full thrust and released the brakes. It was quite a bumpy ride on runway before V2 was reached and we finally left TPE at 14:21 and flew towards the coast line.

The seat belt signs remained on for the next seven minutes before the crew got up and went to their stations. The printed menu was distributed, this time from the back of the cabin and I was asked if I had already chosen a main course. Since one of the courses – the deep fried pork – caught my eye, I decided to go for it, while my seat neighbour preferred to decide later what to eat.

Nevertheless,have a look at the menu (click on icon, opens new window)

First Course

Fresh seasonal fruit

Main course and dessert

Deep fried pork, osmanthus sauce,
broccoli, egg fried rice
Raspberry chocolate almond cake, whipped cream

While we were still flying along the coast, the meal service started round about 15 minutes after we left Taipei with the serving of the first course. On this flight, two crew members were working together at the cart starting from the first row towards the back of the cabin. It was interesting to see, every step fit perfectly to those of the colleague and also the next step. Also they were smiling as serving passengers. As I had already chosen what to have as main course, it was later brought by a flight attendant, while the cart with all available main courses appeared a bit later. In so far, with my pre order I had the benefit to be served ahead of other passengers. The pork was hot and tasteful and the rice also quite good and not dry; only the broccoli was hard but this time tasted like broccoli. I would also rate the food as being okay seized for such a short flight.

Later tea and coffee was also offered and this time we were even asked for a refill. The crew was attentive, though the beverage service was again a bit lacking a more coordinated approach. Maybe it is just, that one had to ask? On the other hand, if the flight attendants notice that my glass is empty, why did they not offer a refill themselves?

I had watched the flight map during the flight and noticed that we had made some slightly detours and were flying Zick-Zack, so I assumed that Hong Kong was busy and we had to fly waiting patterns. This was confirmed later by the captain as he came over the intercom and announcing that we would be a little bit delayed as Hong Kong International Airport was currently quite busy.

While we were already slowly descending into HKG, the crew began to collect the remaining items from the service as the captain announced the remaining flight time with 20 minutes. Then the usual routine of announcement was done: asking passengers not to visit the lavatories anymore – which were not enforced in Business Class – and putting seats to an upright position, storing tray tables ...

We passed Hong Kong during our approach, which resulted in terrific view of fragrant harbour as Hong Kong is translated into English. To me, Hong Kong has the nicest and most interesting skylines, the mixture of a scenic landscape with hills and sea, modern skyscrapers and ships makes is unique and not many cities could offer this combination.

We touched down at 15:45, which would mean an on time arrival, however touching down does not mean, we were at the gate. And despite we could have reached the gate quickly, a Thai Airways International Airbus A 330 was in our way blocking the taxiway.

Finally we were able to move and taxi to our gate, where we arrived at 15:57. Only the first jetbridge was used, so we could disembark quickly through the front door. I was on the long walk from our gate 31 to the immigration counters. These were not busy and I had passed it quickly and decided to sign up for the e-channel allowing me to use the self immigration facilities the next time I travel through Hong Kong.

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