TransAsia Airways Corp (TNA, 復興航空), which focuses on regional passenger routes in Asia, yesterday posted the highest earnings per share (EPS) for the third quarter among the nation’s three listed airlines.
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s two largest carriers, also said they returned to the black in the first nine months of the year on the back of strong seasonal passenger demand in the third quarter.
TNA posted a net profit of NT$153.21 million (US$5.23 million), or EPS of NT$0.28, in the first nine months of the year, aided by earnings of NT$107 million, or NT$0.19 per share, in the third quarter, the company said in a press release.
Strong sales from the carrier’s newly launched six regular routes to Japan helped drive up profitability in the third quarter — the traditional strong season for passenger business, the press release said.
In the meantime, strong passenger business led CAL and EVA to report their highest quarterly earnings this year during the July-to-September period.
CAL posted NT$1.42 billion, or NT$0.31 per share, in net profits for the third quarter, stronger than the NT$875.65 million, or NT$0.22 per share, recorded during the same period last year, the company said in its stock exchange filing on Tuesday.
The profit-making third quarter helped the carrier make up for the NT$1.04 billion in net losses recorded in the first half of this year and post a net profit of NT$384.31 million, or NT$0.08 per share, in the first nine months of the year.
The NT$384.31 million in earnings represented a nearly 80 percent growth from the same period last year.
EVA’s net profit totaled NT$1.56 billion, or NT$0.48 per share, in the third quarter, also stronger than the NT$1.26 billion net earnings, or EPS of NT$0.39 per share, posted in the third quarter last year, the company’s stock exchange filing showed on Friday last week.
The carrier posted profits of NT$673.69 million, or NT$0.21 per share, in the first nine months of the year, from a net loss of NT$881 million recorded in the first half of this year, statistics showed.
However, the profit was lower than the NT$1.59 billion the company earned in the first three quarters of last year.
For the fourth quarter, CAL president Sun Hung-hsiang (孫洪祥) said last week that the movement of global oil prices and performance of the cargo industry remained the greatest areas of uncertainty for the sector’s potential profitability.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last