TPE-Tao Yuan international Airport( formally known as Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport) is a hub of China Airlines( CI) and Eva Air(BR). Both airlines have partnered up Airlines based in America in term of US domestic flights, and their tickets are real cheap. Eva Air offers some of kind of Deluxe class which is much better than most economy class.
Many South East Asian airlines(MH, SQ, VN) also use this airport for the stop on the way to North America. Most flights to USA will depart from terminal 2 which is very very new, clean and spacious, and it is better than Suvannaphum Airport in Bangkok in term of the space and facility. There’s also an electric shettle from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, it’s a kind of fun, we don’t have that in Bangkok. There are an internet area which is free for passengers. But Suvannaphum can accommodate more aircrafts and has more international flights.
Transit period from Delhi to SFO is only an hour, so it is better than Air India that make oddly 2 stops in Singapore and Hong Kong if you look at the world map. Let’s say 80% of CI and BR flights to Europe will stop at Bangkok. One of the reason that South East Asian airlines prefer making a stop in Taiwan is that it is cheaper for the parking space here compared to airport in Japan.
Another reason, it takes only 10 or 11 hours to go across the Ocean from TPE to SFO or LAX.
However, It seems to me that some service is not operated 24 hours a day such as the duty free shop, restaurant. Terminal 1 looks old so Taiwanese government should look at the Airport in Mainland China as an example for improvement( I have been told that the renovation will be begin till 2010, as terminal 3 is being built right now, so they wait until the terminal 3 is done first). Hopefully, Taiwanese government will make a deal with Mainland China for daily flight.
Back to the restaurant, I was so surprised when I tried to buy a bowl of noodle in terminal 1, and the seller told me that the noodles was sold out. So I have to walk to terminal 2 for just a noodles. The cost of the noodles is 6$
To downtown, it is about 50 minutes by Taxi( about 1200NT). But if you want to take Bus, it would cost you 145NT