China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), the nation’s largest carrier, is expected to post a profit of NT$13 billion (US$406.25 million) this year, recovering from a loss of NT$3.8 billion last year, company spokesman Hamilton Liu (劉國芊) told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday.
The profit forecast marks the company’s first year in the black since 2006, when it reported NT$738.4 million in profit, the company’s financial data showed.
The Taipei-based company saw losses of NT$32.35 billion in 2008 and NT$2.52 billion in 2007. In the first nine months of this year, the company made a profit of NT$10.03 billion, compared with losses of NT$4.99 billion a year ago.
“It would also be the company’s best ever performance,” Liu said as CAL celebrated its 51st anniversary yesterday.
At the celebration ceremony, CAL chairman Philip Wei (魏幸雄) said the company had this year achieved its highest business turnover in 50 years after overcoming challenges such as high oil prices, H1N1 pandemic flu and the global financial crisis in recent years, according to a company statement.
Wei did not discuss his unexpected resignation, announced by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications in a statement issued on Wednesday night. The ministry appointed former China Steel Corp (中鋼) chairman Chang Chia-juch (張家祝) to replace Wei.
The company would likely hold a board meeting later this month or early next month to approve the appointment of Chang’s appointment. Liu said.
Looking ahead, CAL president Sun Hung-hsiang (孫洪祥) said the company would continue expanding the number of the direct flights between Taiwan and China, introduce five new Airbus A330 aircraft over the next two years, and remodel nine Boeing 747s by the end of next year to meet increased demand.
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
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New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last