EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) will cut long-haul flights, including those to Europe and the US, to try to offset loss in the face of skyrocketing fuel prices, airlines officials said yesterday.
“We will have to make flexible adjustments to our long-haul flights after the summer vacation in September to reflect operation costs following deficits in 2007 and the first quarter of this year,” EVA spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei (聶國維) said.
The airline said it suffered a loss of NT$1.87 billion (US$61.5 million) last year and registered a deficit of NT$2.3 billion in the first quarter of this year.
EVA chairman Chang Yung-fa (張榮發) projected the company’s losses to top NT$10 billion this year because of fuel costs, which have risen to 60 percent of the total operating expenses of the company.
Under the tentative plan, flights affected would be Amsterdam, Los Angeles and San Francisco, Auckland and Brisbane, Nieh said.
Nieh declined to say how many long-haul flights would be cut, saying the airlines will notify air passengers one month in advance for any adjustments made.
The airline halted flights to Paris last October, and to Mumbai earlier this year.
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), said last month it had cut about 150 flights, mostly to the US and Asia, because of fuel costs.
Newly elected CAL chairman Philip Wei (魏幸雄) said on Thursday that the airline would focus on short-haul regional flights.
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