TransAsia Airways Corp (TNA, 復興航空), one of Taiwan’s three listed airlines, yesterday said the company started to make a profit in May amid rising passenger loads.
This has prompted market researchers to raise expectations that the company will generate more than NT$100 million (US$3.34 million) in the first half of this year.
“Rising passenger loads, especially on cross-strait routes, were the major factor behind the company’s sales and profitability in the second quarter,” TransAsia chairman Vincent Lin (林明昇) told a media briefing.
This led to TNA posting revenues of NT$2.34 billion in the second quarter, up 9.8 percent from last year and and up 7.63 percent from last quarter, company financial data showed.
Rising sales are set to help the company shake off its loss-making first quarter — during which it posted a net loss of NT$21.39 million, or NT$0.04 per share — and make profit in the first half.
The same positive factor may have also helped boost TNA’s revenue last month, Lin added.
The carrier’s overall passenger load was flat from a year ago and reached more than 80 percent last month, with loadings in cross-strait routes and Japanese routes averaging 85 percent and 80 percent respectively, company data showed.
A market researcher, who declined to be named, said the steady passenger loadings may have led the company to reach the historically high revenue level of NT$966 million last month, up 11.8 percent and 27.13 percent from a year and a month ago.
Two Airbus 330-300 planes are scheduled to be delivered to TransAsia, one in November and a second one to be delivered in January next year. Both aircraft are set to operate on routes to Singapore and Osaka, Japan.
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