Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT, 遠東航空) said it would suspend its operations temporarily from tomorrow because of a lack of funds.
The Taipei-based carrier apologized to the public for any inconvenience resulting from its decision, it said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Far Eastern Air operates domestic flights and regular flights between Taiwan and resort islands including Jeju of South Korea, Palau, and Bali of Indonesia.
The carrier said in February it was seeking protection from creditors because of “financial difficulties.”
Meanwhile, nine travel service companies accused Alex Lou (樓文豪), a managing director of Cambodia-based Angkor Airways Corp (吳哥航空), of fraud at the Taipei District Prosecutors Office yesterday after sustaining heavy financial losses caused by the airline’s abrupt suspension of flights.
Yao Ta-kuang (姚大光), chairman of the Travel Agent Association of the Republic of China Taiwan, said the companies — all of which are Taipei-based — made the move after seeking assistance from the Executive Yuan’s Consumer Protection Commission.
Yao said commission officials said that the travel agents should take legal action as this would be the most efficient way for the travel agencies to get back money they have paid for advance bookings on flights offered by the Phnom Penh-based airline between Taipei and Siem Reap — home to the world famous Angkor Wat complex.
The travel agencies sustained losses valued at more than NT$100 million (US$3.2 million) due to the suspension of the flights, Yao said.
Lou was detained by prosecutors in Taipei on May 1 in relation to an alleged embezzlement scandal involving FAT, which leased planes to Angkor Airways.
Lou was responsible for the financial management of Angkor Airlines’ Taipei branch and without him, the branch faced insurmountable cash flow problems, Angkor officials said.
CHIP RACE: Three years of overbroad export controls drove foreign competitors to pursue their own AI chips, and ‘cost US taxpayers billions of dollars,’ Nvidia said China has figured out the US strategy for allowing it to buy Nvidia Corp’s H200s and is rejecting the artificial intelligence (AI) chip in favor of domestically developed semiconductors, White House AI adviser David Sacks said, citing news reports. US President Donald Trump on Monday said that he would allow shipments of Nvidia’s H200 chips to China, part of an administration effort backed by Sacks to challenge Chinese tech champions such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為) by bringing US competition to their home market. On Friday, Sacks signaled that he was uncertain about whether that approach would work. “They’re rejecting our chips,” Sacks
NATIONAL SECURITY: Intel’s testing of ACM tools despite US government control ‘highlights egregious gaps in US technology protection policies,’ a former official said Chipmaker Intel Corp has tested chipmaking tools this year from a toolmaker with deep roots in China and two overseas units that were targeted by US sanctions, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Intel, which fended off calls for its CEO’s resignation from US President Donald Trump in August over his alleged ties to China, got the tools from ACM Research Inc, a Fremont, California-based producer of chipmaking equipment. Two of ACM’s units, based in Shanghai and South Korea, were among a number of firms barred last year from receiving US technology over claims they have
It is challenging to build infrastructure in much of Europe. Constrained budgets and polarized politics tend to undermine long-term projects, forcing officials to react to emergencies rather than plan for the future. Not in Austria. Today, the country is to officially open its Koralmbahn tunnel, the 5.9 billion euro (US$6.9 billion) centerpiece of a groundbreaking new railway that will eventually run from Poland’s Baltic coast to the Adriatic Sea, transforming travel within Austria and positioning the Alpine nation at the forefront of logistics in Europe. “It is Austria’s biggest socio-economic experiment in over a century,” said Eric Kirschner, an economist at Graz-based Joanneum
OPTION: Uber said it could provide higher pay for batch trips, if incentives for batching is not removed entirely, as the latter would force it to pass on the costs to consumers Uber Technologies Inc yesterday warned that proposed restrictions on batching orders and minimum wages could prompt a NT$20 delivery fee increase in Taiwan, as lower efficiency would drive up costs. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi made the remarks yesterday during his visit to Taiwan. He is on a multileg trip to the region, which includes stops in South Korea and Japan. His visit coincided the release last month of the Ministry of Labor’s draft bill on the delivery sector, which aims to safeguard delivery workers’ rights and improve their welfare. The ministry set the minimum pay for local food delivery drivers at
RSS