EVA Airways Corp (
The airline's nine-month net income fell 49 percent to NT$1.37 billion, making the full-year earnings likely to trail the NT$3.24 billion (US$100 million) in 2004, EVA Airways Executive Vice President Nieh Kuo-wei (
"The past year was one of the most daunting challenges we've ever faced in the airline industry," Nieh said in an interview yesterday in Taipei. "Breaking even in the fourth quarter would have been an achievement by itself."
Global airlines may report an industry loss of US$4 billion this year as the average price of crude oil rises to US$53 a barrel from US$48, according to an estimate by the International Air Transport Association. That's spurring Cathay Pacific Airways Co, EVA Airways and other Asian carriers to hedge fuel, cut costs, add surcharges and switch to fuel-efficient planes to maintain their earnings.
The price of jet fuel jumped to a record US$85.36 a barrel on Oct. 3 in Singapore, according to Platts pricing service. Fuel, which rose 49 percent last year, is the single-biggest expense for Asian airlines, which have lower labor costs than US and European carriers.
Combined profits at Asian airlines fell 42 percent to an estimated US$1.5 billion last year, said IATA, which represents 265 carriers worldwide. Cathay Pacific, Asia's No. 3 airline by market value, posted a 25 percent decline in profit for last year even though it carried a record number of passengers and cargo.
EVA Airways shares fell for a second day today, dropping 0.4 percent to a six-month low of NT$12.30 in Taipei. The stock has fallen 15.5 percent in the past 12 months, lagging behind the 7.1 percent gain in the key Taiex index.
The airline's sales for last year rose 6.5 percent to NT$88 billion, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Passengers contributed to 46 percent of last year's sales, compared with 47 percent by cargo, the company said.
EVA Airways, scheduled to increase flights to northern Japan's Hokkaido and the US West Coast, expects this year's passenger traffic growth to be "stable," Nieh said.
EVA Airways' cargo yield, or the amount of cargo revenue earned for every tonne-kilometer flown, rose to a four-year high of NT$7.56 last year, as Taiwan's increasing exports of semiconductor chips and cellular phones boosted air freight.
The airline, which placed a US$1.5 billion order in 2004 for eight Boeing Co 777-300ER aircraft, adding to a purchase of four of the same model and three 777-200LRs in 2000, said it will fly the new planes to Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and to Europe, using older 747-400s for cargo.
EVA Airways received its first two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft last year. The 777-300ER can carry 365 people as far as 7,880 nautical miles (14,594km), or non-stop from Taipei to London or New York.
The 777-200LR, which can fly a maximum 9,420 nautical miles with 301 people on board, is the world's longest-range commercial plane.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to