全球航空運輸業目前因為放鬆管制,以及為求提高競爭力和世界經濟的全球化進程而面臨激烈的重組,而航空地理的全球轉變會受到各地不同的歷史進程在各尺度產生差異。台灣的民航運輸萌芽於日治時期(1895年-1945年),始於國民政府播遷來台(1949年)之後,發展至今已成為亞洲地區重要的機場之一。本文試圖解釋台灣從國民政府播遷來台至今(1949年-)民航運輸地理的發展,並且透過演化經濟地理學中的路徑依賴概念,說明台灣民航運輸的空間是如何被形塑與發展。本文論述民航運輸的發展與一地的地理位置、技術發展、地方組織以及該地的地域環境相關,這些因素受到國內政治、經濟環境與國際往來密切程度影響而交纏不清。台灣的民航運輸是依循著日治時期的建設基礎、受制於日本時空的約束,並且承襲過去日治時期、美援時期的資產,隨著時間演替,在台灣的地域環境下適應與演化,其間,桃園國際機場的興築、台灣在1970年代末的產業轉型政策以及與日本、美國和中國的關係資產成為台灣民航運輸發展中重要的價值提升與獲取因素。
The geographies of the world-wide air transport industry have been dramatically restructuring, as entailed with deregulation, enhancing competitiveness and the intensified processes of globalization in the world economy. Such global shift of air geographies varies in terms of space, place and locality based on its historical processes. Since emerged in the Japanese colonial era (1895-1945), and then governed by the Nationalist Party fled to Taiwan in 1945 to now, the civil air transport has developed Taiwan as one of important nodes among the Asian airports. This paper attempts to examine the changing geographies of the development of civil aviation industry from 1945 till now in Taiwan, via focal lens on path dependence in Evolutionary Economic Geography to decipher how the space of civil aviation industry has been shaped and evolved in Taiwan. This paper argues that the development of civil aviation industry relies on the geographic location, technology, institutions and territories which are intertwined with the local political and economic environment and global contacts. Established in, restricted to and inherited from the Japanese colonial era, followed with the policies of US Aid in the Nationalist Party ruling regimes, Taiwan's civil aviation industry is accordingly adopted adapted over time. In the meanwhile, the establishment of Taoyuan International Airport articulated, the Taiwan’s industrial transformation in the late-1970s, and the relational assets among Japan, America, and mainland China promoting the value enhance and capture.