Far Eastern Air Transport (遠東航空) (FAT) is an
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 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.
History
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). 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.
Due to the...
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