V Air (威航), TransAsia Airways Corp’s (復興航空) budget carrier, yesterday announced that it has signed an in-flight franchise agreement with the US-based DFASS Group, a leading duty-free travel retailer.
The DFASS Group cooperates with 28 airlines worldwide, including Singapore Airlines, Garuda Indonesia and low-cost carrier Scoot Airlines.
“We expect the partnership with the DFASS Group to add value to V Air’s operations, leading growth in duty-free shopping to become the carrier’s key ancillary revenue channel,” V Air chief executive operator Eleni Lung (隆章琪) said in a statement.
V Air is in the process of obtaining approval from aviation authorities ahead of its launch, scheduled to take place later this year.
The new carrier plans to fly with a brand-new fleet of Airbus SAS 320s and 321s and is targeting a number of cities in Northeast and Southeast Asia as potential destinations for its routes.
Elsewhere in the aviation sector, China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), the nation’s largest carrier, yesterday said that it is planning to recruit more than 600 employees, including 150 flight attendants.
Along with its revamped workforce, CAL is to introduce a new Airbus A330 series aircraft, as well as three Boeing Co 738s and three B777 planes by the end of the year.
The company’s budget airline carrier, Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航) — a joint venture between CAL and Tiger Airways Pte of Singapore — said earlier this year that it is planning to hire 180 employees.
In the first four months of the year, CAL posted consolidated revenue of NT$47.33 billion (US$1.56 billion), an increase of 6.44 percent from a year ago.
EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest carrier, reported that its revenue increased by 4.15 percent to NT$40.28 billion over the same period, while TransAsia recorded an annual rise in revenue of 8.03 percent to NT$4.1 billion in the first four months of this year, according to statistics provided by the companies.
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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RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
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],”