Cabinet warns Songshan airport move would leave a critical gap in capital defence

Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an told the Executive Yuan on 15 October 2026 that relocating Taipei Songshan Airport would free land for an AI park and could be absorbed by Taoyuan International Airport once its third terminal opens, but Cabinet officials answered that closing the dual-use field would leave a critical capability gap in the capital's defence and disaster response.

Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee said Songshan handles outlying-island transport, medical evacuation, international flights and backup duty for Taoyuan, and doubles as a military airbase for the capital's defence. Without it, she said, filling that gap would be immensely challenging, especially because it is the only airport able to take E- and F-type aircraft when Taoyuan cannot.

Premier Cho Jung-tai asked Chiang to explain why his position had shifted so sharply from earlier years and to hand over four years of Taipei City assessments so ministries can study them, Lee said. Chiang told reporters before the meeting that he had written to the central government in August 2025 urging Songshan's removal from future airport plans, and he framed the move as opening Taipei's skyline limits for an AI corridor across northern Taiwan.

Transport Minister Chen Shih-kai told the Cabinet that Taoyuan's third terminal and third runway may finish around 2030 to 2033, but that lifting overall capacity would still take more than a decade because the north and south runways must be rebuilt. Civil Aviation Administration deputy director Yang Kuo-feng said Songshan and Taoyuan fly different aircraft mixes, including ATR turboprops on domestic routes, and put a conservative assessment horizon at more than 20 years before a move could be judged feasible. He added that the Cabinet-approved Songshan plan still points toward a capital business-jet and domestic hub through the mid-2040s unless that policy changes.

Defence Minister Wellington Koo clarified that a Songnan camp site Chiang had cited for surveys sits outside Songshan airport, has already left military use and is under redevelopment, so it is unrelated to any airport move. The Health Ministry separately stressed Songshan's role in medical flights to and from Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu that connect patients with Taipei Veterans General Hospital and Tri-Service General Hospital.

Lee said the Songshan file touches the interior, health, transport and defence ministries at once, and that Chiang's Cabinet presentation focused on post-closure land use while treating medical evacuation as something that could be redesigned later. The Cabinet record now pairs that political push with an explicit capital-defence warning: lose Songshan without a like-for-like airfield, and Taipei loses both its large-jet diversion strip and a military air node in the city.