China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday announced it is to set up a low-cost carrier venture with Tiger Airways Pte of Singapore and plans to launch operations in the fourth quarter next year.
The joint venture, which has a paid-up capital of NT$2 billion (US$67.33 million), is to run a budget airline under the brand Tigerair Taiwan, which is licensed by Tiger Airways and based at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport.
NORTHEAST ASIA
Photo: Yao Chieh-hsiu, Taipei Times
Tigerair Taiwan aims to be a no-frills carrier providing international air travel services across Northeast Asia, including Japan, South Korea and the second-tier and third-tier cities of China.
“China Airlines’ knowledge of the Taiwan market, coupled with Tiger Airways’ expertise in the no-frills sector, should stimulate demand in the civil aviation market here,” CAL chairman Sun Hung-hsiang (孫洪祥) told a press conference.
CAL is not the only airline in Taiwan planning to enter in the low-cost carrier market.
Last month, TransAsia Airways Corp (TNA, 復興航空), which mainly serves passengers on regional and cross-strait routes, said it would establish a budget airline subsidiary within one year to meet rising demand.
The company, which mainly serves passengers on regional and cross-strait routes, said it planned to invest between NT$2 billion and NT$3 billion to operate the subsidiary.
Sun said CAL and Tiger Airways are submitting an application for regulatory approvals from the Ministry of Economic affairs and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), aiming to operate as quickly as possible.
In addition, the launch of Tigerair Taiwan will help increase CAL’s sales performance and profitability, Sun said, as CAL holds a 90 percent share in the new carrier, with its Singapore partner taking the other 10 percent.
Sun expressed optimism that Tigerair Taiwan will “absolutely” turn profit after three years of operation, with the company aiming to break even in its first year of operation.
INITIAL THREE PLANES
Tigerair Taiwan plans to buy three Airbus SAS’ 320 series aircraft, with the fleet expected to total 12 planes in 2016 or 2017.
The new joint venture is to allow Tiger Airways to extend its presence into new untapped markets in Northeast Asia, chief executive officer Koay Peng-yen (郭炳炎) said.
Tiger Airways Holding Ltd currently operates a fleet of 50 aircraft to over 50 destinations, from its bases in Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia, while CAL operates a fleet of 75 aircraft to 109 domestic and international destinations in its network.
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
RSS