Japan Airlines chairman Toshiyuki Shinmachi announced his resignation yesterday to make room for younger leadership, saying he had seen the carrier through a successful turnaround.
The company reported a ?13.1 billion (US$122 million) profit in the October-December quarter yesterday, reversing a ?10.8 billion loss from the same quarter the previous year. It was the second straight quarterly profit after more than two years of losses.
Japan's biggest airline, known as JAL, has worked hard to improve its fortunes, cutting staff, dropping unprofitable routes and shifting to fuel-efficient aircraft.
Shinmachi, 65, told a board meeting he will quit March 31, having seen the company get on track to profit, JAL said. The move is also an effort to rejuvenate managerial ranks, it said.
Shinmachi became president in 2004 and took office as chairman in 2006, partly to take responsibility for the airlines' faltering finances and a spate of safety problems. The chairman's seat will be left vacant, JAL said.
The airline has been struggling in recent years, hurt by a rising fuel bill, costly early retirement packages and a tarnished image from a series of safety lapses. The airline has been trying to regain customer confidence after Japanese passengers have instead opted for rival All Nippon Airways.
JAL swung into the black in the July-September quarter of last year after losing money in the fiscal first quarter and the previous two straight fiscal years.
Sales for the quarter ended Dec. 31 declined 4.4 percent to ?558.2 billion partly because of the sale of a part of JAL's stake in a trading company called JALUX.
JAL said international travel to China, Vietnam and India was strong in recent months, offsetting a gradual decline on previously popular routes such as Europe and Hawaii, which are now less popular because of the declining.
Adding to its bottom line in October-December were cuts in expenses, which decreased ?65.8 billion from a year earlier. Quarterly revenue from international flights rose 5.7 percent while revenue from domestic passengers and cargo declined slightly.
JAL left its forecast for the fiscal year through next month at ?7 billion in profit on sales of ?2.238 trillion. In fiscal 2006, JAL had posted a ?16.2 billion loss.
The management reshuffle in 2006 followed safety problems that began in 2005, and tarnished JAL's image, including wheels falling off during a landing and an engine that burst into flames.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San