Passengers at Taoyuan airport down on Friday from day before

Taipei--A total of 115,951 inbound and outbound passengers were expected to pass through Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan's main gateway, on Lunar New Year's Eve on Friday, a relatively steep fall from a day earlier.

The estimate would be nearly 10,000 more than the 106,328 passengers handled by the airport in 2016 but down nearly 15,000 from Thursday's numbers, the airport said.

The number of inbound and outbound passengers traveling for the Lunar New Year holiday started to spike on Thursday, when the airport handled 130,754 passengers, less than 1,000 more that passed through the airport two days before Lunar New Year's Day last year.

The passenger numbers for Lunar New Year's Eve were about the same as the daily average of 115,880 passengers in 2016. That and the higher airport traffic on Thursday indicated that many travelers preferred to be settled either in Taiwan or at their destination on Lunar New Year's Eve.

The airport estimated that passenger traffic will peak at 140,000 on Feb. 3, the seventh day of the first month of the Lunar New Year. This year's Lunar New Year's vacation formally ends on Feb. 2.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel