After launching daily roundtrip flights between Taipei and Singa-pore that have triggered price wars with other carriers, budget airline Jetstar Asia yesterday said it is working to offer service between Kaohsiung and the Lion City within the first six months of next year.
"We're very excited to be the first low-cost budget carrier operating in Taiwan and we're eager to show people that there's a new way to fly," said Con Korfiatis, chief operating officer of Singapore-based Jetstar Asia Airways Pte Ltd, at a press conference in Taipei.
The carrier began service to Hong Kong on Monday, to Taipei yesterday and will extend its service network to other destinations -- such as Shanghai, Jakarta, Surabaya and Manila -- beginning next month, Korfiatis said.
"We do not mean to compete with traditional airlines that offer full services on board, but aim at providing passengers with an alternative," he said.
The company has sent shock-waves across the industry after announcing one-way tickets between Taipei and Singapore starting at NT$2,350 -- excluding tax and insurance -- with a promotional price of NT$1,788 offered from yesterday to next Thursday.
Korfiatis said the company can provide attractive fares because some facilities and services offered by other airlines are taken out, including first and business-class cabins, free meals, entertainment facilities and VIP lounges at airports.
Also, Korfiatis said the company has its own booking system, which allows it to save enormous commissions paid when using global distribution systems.
"But a low fare doesn't mean low quality," he said, adding that the carrier is 49 percent owned by Australia's Quantas Airways Ltd and would offer passengers the same level of services and safety as Quantas.
Jetstar is currently using three brand-new Airbus A320s and projects bringing in another five next year, before expanding the entire fleet to 20 aircraft within three years, Korfiatis said.
As fares may fluctuate with market demand, he promised that the price of the Taipei-Singapore route would not rise above NT$7,399 -- 30 percent lower than its competitors' most expensive tickets.
Its first flight to Taipei yesterday was fully booked and the 180-seat plane back to Singapore was 80 percent full, according to Korfiatis.
Addressing the launch ceremony, George Lee (
"Companies must provide full information to customers and let them know what services they can get, so as to avoid disputes," Lee said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”