EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest carrier, posted record sales last month, buoyed by strong seasonal demand and the marketing benefits of its joining the Star Alliance.
EVA saw consolidated revenue rise to NT$11.29 billion (US$376.58 million) last month, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier and 4.83 percent from a month earlier, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Accumulated sales in the first seven months of the year reached NT$70.66 billion, edging up 1.35 percent from a year ago, company data showed.
Strong passenger sales on the back of peak summer demand was the major driver behind the increase in EVA’s consolidated revenue last month.
Passenger revenue totaled NT$7.01 billion last month, rising 13.27 percent from a month ago and 6.37 percent from a year ago, company data showed.
However, EVA’s air cargo business remained weak at NT$2.6 billion last month, down 2.62 percent from June and 7.8 percent from the same period last year, data showed.
“Business in the passenger sector remained the main driver for local airlines, with strong seasonal demand expected to boost their revenues in the third quarter to their highest level this year,” Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said in its latest research note.
China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), the nation’s largest carrier, saw a similar increase in passenger demand, while its cargo business also remained weak.
However, its top line contracted 2.07 percent last month to NT$12.87 billion compared with a year earlier, as the sharp decline in its cargo business undermined growth in passenger sales, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
CAL saw revenue from its passenger sector surge 5.79 percent to NT$8.96 billion last month from a year earlier, while sales from its cargo business dropped 9.06 percent to NT$3.11 billion, company data showed.
On a monthly basis, the carrier still saw consolidated sales increase 10.09 percent last month, with passenger sales rising 16.81 percent and cargo sales slipping 5.75 percent.
In the first seven months of the year, consolidated sales totaled NT$80.09 billion, down 2.36 percent year-on-year, it said.
Smaller carrier TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) saw its consolidated revenue last month climb 25.48 percent from a year earlier and 22.33 percent from a month earlier to a record NT$1.26 billion.
TransAsia, which offers passenger flights around the region, posted consolidated sales of NT$7.01 billion in the first seven months of the year, up 21.21 percent from the previous year, data showed.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day