TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Kaohsiung International Airport wants to concentrate on winter flights to Japan, reports said Wednesday (May 15).

Officials said they were hoping service could start on Kumamoto, Okayama, and Sapporo on the northern island of Hokkaido by the end of this year, per CNA. Other possibilities are Cebu and Clark in the Philippines, and the island of Jeju in South Korea.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines operated 37 routes on the airport in the district of Xiaogang. Only 19 were left just after the pandemic, with the number now back up to 25.

Legislators invited officials from the Ministry of Transportation and from the Civil Aviation Administration to visit the airport Wednesday. Issues under discussion included progress on a new terminal and an improvement in the capacity of ground services.

The CAA pledged its full support for efforts to bring the number of flights up to the pre-COVID level, according to Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤), who also toured the airport with the officials Wednesday.