China Airlines Co (
Taiwan's largest carrier, which operates 16 flights every day to Hong Kong, cancelled three Taiwan-Hong Kong flights yesterday according to Joseph Wu (武志厚), a public relations official at China Airlines.
PHOTO: AP
Future flights cancellations will be determined by daily demand, Wu said.
Spokesperson Roger Han (
He added that while the airline would try to notify passengers of any cancellations, he urged them to contact the airline or check the China Airlines Web site for scheduling changes.
At EVA Airways Corp (
"We are now filling only 50 to 60 percent of seats on flights between Taipei and Hong Kong, while the occupancy rate is usually around 80 percent," EVA spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei (
Nieh said that EVA flies to Hong Kong 40 times per week and may consider reducing flight numbers if the occupancy rate continues to drop.
The disease will weigh heavier on China Airlines than the war in Iraq after the World Health Organization on Wednesday warned travelers to steer clear of southern China and Hong Kong, Taiwan Rating Corp (
"Demand for air travel will decline and China Airlines' overall performance is likely to weaken in the near term ...," it said.
China Airlines shares dropped NT$0.05, or 0.1 percent, to close at NT$12 on the TAIEX yesterday.
Meanwhile, local companies, that operate across the Taiwan Strait, are continuing to implement their contingency plans to stymie the spread of SARS from China-based employees.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶) has put a ban on returning trips of China-based employees since mid March, a company executive, who refused to be identified, said yesterday.
According to the executive, the company's China-based employees are given nine days leave every two months to return home. But since the disease broke out in March, employees have been advised to spend vacation time elsewhere. Local employees, moreover, are restricted from making unnecessary business trips to China. If trips are made to China or foreign countries, staff have been advised to wear masks and avoid stopovers in Hong Kong.
Compal, moreover, disinfected 11 floors at its Taipei-based headquarters in late March.
Adopting a similar plan, Alex Hsu (徐信群), senior vice president of Inventec Corp (英業達), said that the company strictly demanded returning employees to take five days leave, two of which are paid, to make sure no transmissions of the disease are made to the Taipei office. Returning employees are required to wear surgical masks in the Taipei office for a period of two weeks, Hsu said.
Giant Manufacturing Co (
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last