Kaohsiung International
Southern Taiwan's international gateway. Single runway, regional + long-haul mix, summer storm season turns voice quality into the lower bound on safety.
Strategic role
Kaohsiung International serves Taiwan's south with a single 3,150-metre runway 09/27 inside a corridor shared with the Republic of China Air Force at the adjacent base. The aerodrome is operated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration directly. Civilian movements run a 2200–1600 UTC operating window with passenger traffic concentrated around China Airlines, EVA Air, and Star Alliance regional carriers; cross-strait traffic and Southeast Asia regional routes carry the bulk of the schedule. The summer typhoon season — typically June through September — is the operationally interesting window: convective weather drives a continuous stream of holdings, diversions, and runway-direction switches that the receiver picks up at high signal density.
Regional context
APAC hubs within 1,500 km — filled pins are live, hollow rings are reachable but not yet active.
Movement area diagram
Reading the field, west to east
Over the strait, no glideslope
The 27 threshold sits about a kilometre from the Taiwan Strait, with Kaohsiung port and the Cijin sandspit directly off the approach. Westerly winds 260-280° prevail roughly eight months of the year (March through November), so 27 is the default landing direction — yet runway 27 has no glideslope, only LOC and DME. Even on the most-used direction at the field, the vertical profile is pilot-managed. Westward extension is impossible: port and sea bound the airport on this side.
A long-overdue rebuild
The international terminal opened on 11 January 1997 with twelve jet-bridge gates; the domestic terminal still has none, with passengers walking or busing to stand. UNI Air anchors the field as its main hub for the offshore islands — Magong, Kinmen, Cimei, Wang'an, Ludao, Lanyu. China Airlines runs line maintenance here, not heavy. A NT$88 billion combined-terminal programme broke ground in 2025 and aims for phase-one delivery by 2030, full completion 2040 — the first major airside-adjacent change at RCKH in a generation.
Departures over the petrochemical belt
The 09 threshold faces Dalin and Linyuan, southern Taiwan's largest petrochemical complex — CPC's Linyuan refinery and the No. 3 Naphtha Cracker (since 1976), surrounded by smaller chemical plants and a dense residential belt. When summer ENE flow puts 09 into use, departures climb directly over the fenceline. After RNAV SIDs were rolled out in 2019, both Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County formally petitioned the CAA to revise tracks — a politically loaded operating pattern that drives noise-monitoring policy across the field.
Runways and landing systems
| Designator | Dimensions | Surface | TORA | TODA | ASDA | LDA | ILS / Localizer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 27 | 3,150 × 60 m | CONC+ASPH | 3,150 | 3,210 | 3,150 | 2,705 | — |
| 09 | 3,150 × 60 m | CONC+ASPH | 3,150 | 3,210 | 3,210 | 2,990 | — |
ATS communications
18 frequencies
| Service | Callsign | MHz | Hours | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tower | KAOHSIUNG TOWER | 118.700 | ||
| Tower | KAOHSIUNG TOWER | 120.700 | Alternate | Alternate frequency |
| Tower | KAOHSIUNG TOWER | 236.600 | ||
| Ground | KAOHSIUNG GROUND | 121.800 | Alternate | Alternate frequency |
| Ground | KAOHSIUNG GROUND | 121.900 | ||
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 121.100 | ||
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 124.700 | ||
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 125.700 | Alternate | Alternate frequency |
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 228.400 | ||
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 232.200 | Alternate | Alternate frequency |
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 324.800 | ||
| Approach | KAOHSIUNG APPROACH | 328.700 | Alternate | Alternate frequency |
| ATIS | KAOHSIUNG INTL AIRPORT | 127.800 | Data-link | Data-link D-ATIS AVBL |
| FIS | KAOHSIUNG FLIGHT FOLLOW | 119.500 | VFR | VFR Flight following |
| FIS | KAOHSIUNG FLIGHT FOLLOW | 135.800 | VFR | VFR Flight following |
| FIS | KAOHSIUNG FLIGHT FOLLOW | 329.500 | VFR | VFR Flight following |
| Emergency | EMERGENCY | 121.500 | Emergency | |
| Emergency | EMERGENCY | 243.000 | Emergency |
Procedures by runway end
Departures fan out from the threshold marked at the top of each column; arrivals converge into it. Names follow the current AIRAC cycle.
Stand and apron structure
Per-stand records (coordinates, max aircraft, surface strength) are operator-console only; the structure summary is what we publish.
Coverage and reception
VHF receiver located within Kaohsiung. Continuous Tower and Ground capture covering the single-runway cadence and the regional / long-haul mix.
Channel list, antenna coordinates, and live transcript stream are not yet public. Contact us for partnership inquiries.