While the government has decided to open eight airports to cross-strait charter flights, domestic airlines seem only to be interested in flights departing from Taipei, Taoyuan and Kaohsiung.
Based on the agreement the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait reached last week, Taiwan agreed to open the airports in Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Taipei, Penghu, Hualien, Kinmen and Taitung to cross-strait charter flights.
A total of 36 round-trip charter flights will initially be offered between China and Taiwan from Friday to Monday, with each side offering 18 round-trip flights during these four days.
The number of round-trip flights departing from airports in Taiwan to Shanghai has been capped at nine.
The limit for round-trip flights from China to Taichung has been set at six flights.
The number 18 was derived from the six domestic airlines in Taiwan being allocated three round-trip flights to China each. After Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT, 遠東航空) was disqualified because of its financial problems, its flights were redistributed between the remaining five airlines — China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), UNI Airways Corp (立榮航空) and TransAsia Airways (復興航空).
In a meeting on Monday night, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) decided to settle the redistribution with a drawing of lots.
The result was that Mandarin, TransAsia and UNI Airways will be able to fly four round-trip charter flights on the first weekend of next month, whereas CAL and EVA are left with three each.
With a total of seven flights at their disposal, CAL and Mandarin Airlines are planning to have three flights between Taoyuan and Shanghai, two between Taoyuan and Beijing, and one between Taoyuan and Guangzhou. They have yet to decide what to do with the remaining flight.
EVA and UNI Airways also have seven flights. They said yesterday that they had chosen Taoyuan, Taipei and Kaohsiung to dispatch charter flights to Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
They said they were still considering how to arrange the flights.
MANAGING RISKS: Taiwan has secured LNG sufficient to cover 95 percent of electricity demand for next month, UBS said, describing the government’s approach as proactive UBS Group AG has raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 8 percent, up from 6.9 percent previously, and said expansion could reach as high as 8.6 percent if external energy shocks are avoided. The upgrade reflects a stronger-than-expected first-quarter performance and sustained momentum in artificial intelligence (AI)-driven exports, which UBS said are providing a firm foundation for growth despite geopolitical and energy risks. Taiwan’s GDP expanded 13.69 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, the fastest growth since the second quarter of 1987, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) reported on Thursday. On a seasonally
Ryanair, Transavia, Volotea and other low-cost airlines are feeling the financial pain from high jet fuel prices as a result of the Middle East war and are cutting flights. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has taken a huge chunk of oil supplies off the market, sending the price of jet fuel soaring and triggering fears of shortages that could force airlines to cancel flights. Airlines are not waiting for a lack of supplies to react. “Travel alert: Airlines are cutting thousands of flights right now,” Travel Therapy host Karen Schaler said in an Instagram reel this past weekend.
Shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) have repeatedly hit new highs, but an equity analyst said the stock’s valuation remains within a reasonable range and any pullback would likely be technical. The contract chipmaker’s historical price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio has ranged between 20 and 30, Cathay Futures Consultant Co (國泰證期) analyst Tsai Ming-han (蔡明翰) told Central News Agency. With market consensus projecting that TSMC would post earnings per share of about NT$100 (US$3.17) this year, supported by strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, and the stock currently trading at a P/E ratio of below 25, Tsai said the valuation
The US Department of Commerce last week ordered multiple chip equipment companies to halt shipments of certain tools to China’s second-largest chipmaker, Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (華虹半導體), its latest action to slow the country’s development of advanced chips, two people familiar with the matter said. The department sent letters to at least a handful of companies informing them of restrictions on tools and other materials destined for two Hua Hong facilities US officials believe make China’s most sophisticated chips, the people said. Top US chip equipment companies Lam Research Corp, Applied Materials Inc and KLA Corp, each of which has significant
RSS