People planning to spend the Lunar New Year holidays overseas could pay less for their tickets, as local airlines are expected to cut fuel surcharges by 17 percent from Feb. 10, in line with declining oil prices.
"We will adjust the fuel surcharge in accordance with the mechanism set by the Civil Aeronautics Administration," Eric Lin (
Long-haul flights
The mechanism stipulates that if the average price of jet fuel in January and February is US$80 per barrel, the fuel surcharge for long-haul international flights can be cut to US$32.50 per flight from US$39.
As for short-haul international flights, or flights departing from Taiwan to other Asian countries, the surcharge can be reduced to US$12.50 per flight from US$15.
The administration is set to announce its decision on whether it will adjust the fuel surcharge or not today, after state-run Chinese Petroleum Corp (CPC,
CPC's jet fuel price last month was US$85.80 per barrel, meaning that the price this month should be US$74.20 or below to reflect the cut in fuel surcharge, Chen said.
Singapore Airlines, the world's largest carrier by market value, announced on Monday that it would lower its fuel surcharge by as much as 11 percent. Qantas Airways lowered its fuel surcharge by US$5 on Jan. 16, in reaction to the 25 percent drop in jet fuel costs since August.
Thai Airways and other carriers are also set to lower the rates.
Affected by the high fuel costs, China Airlines Ltd (
Last year, China Airlines report sales increased 16.52 percent to NT$121.93 billion.
The carrier had yet to make public its financial report for the fourth quarter of last year, but in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday it said that its earnings for the last quarter exceeded NT$800 million, buttressed mostly by an increase in business passengers.
During the January to September period last year, EVA Airways saw accrued net losses of NT$2.32 billion, or NT$0.63 per share, on sales of NT$69.95 billion. For the whole last year, EVA reported its sales had grown 6.69 percent to NT$93.9 billion.
Oil prices
The two carriers are expected to see better earnings this year as oil prices drop.
China Airlines and EVA Airways, along with four smaller carriers, are also likely to make a profit from direct charter flights between Taiwan and China during the Lunar New Year holiday.
Shares of China Airlines declined 0.64 percent to close at NT$15.45 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, while EVA Airways lost 1.38 percent to close at NT$14.3.
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],”