Low-cost carriers (LCC) still appeal to Taiwanese, despite two locally owned budget carriers struggling financially, a Boeing executive said in Taipei yesterday while discussing the market outlook in Taiwan.
Taiwan has a growing economy and market penetration for no-frills airlines is relatively low compared with other countries in Northeast Asia, which suggests there is room for growth, said Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Acknowledging the recent difficulties faced by V Air (威航) and Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航), Tinseth said he remains confident that the emergence of LCC business — both regionally and in Taiwan — is unlikely to slow.
V Air suspended operations on Oct. 1, while Tigerair Taiwan is also in bad shape.
“For every market, there will be winners and losers,” Tinseth said at a news conference, adding that with a good business plan, capital and corporate culture, the LCC model remains lucrative.
“I think the challenge here in Taiwan is there is a greater desire for people to come visit Taiwan than necessarily to leave on the low-cost model.”
It explains why the more successful LCCs operating in Taiwan are foreign-based, he said, adding that Taiwanese LCCs should improve their services for local passengers to develop a more balanced consumer base.
Boeing said that passenger air traffic in Northeast Asia will grow at an annual rate of 2.6 percent over the next 20 years, backed by LCCs.
Taiwan could see even greater growth with a stronger economy, although it might pick up rather slowly in the LCC market, Tinseth said.
“We have seen a surge in the number of flights being added within the region due to the emergence of LCCs over the past five years,” he said.
According to Boeing, the market share of Northeast Asia LCCs has grown from 31 percent in 2011 to 47 percent this year.
The trend is exciting news for the aviation industry, because budget airlines help stimulate flight demand in general, Tinseth said.
Mature fleets in Northeast Asia will drive replacement demand, contributing two-thirds of the region’s aircraft deliveries, he added.
Boeing also forecasts that airlines in Northeast Asia will require 1,440 new commercial airplanes valued at over US$320 billion between now and 2035.
More than half of these airplanes, or approximately 770 aircraft, will be for widebody airplanes such as the new 787 and 777 airplanes, while 600 units will be for narrow-body airplanes, such as the new 737 MAX, Tinseth said.
"Widebody airplanes will continue to play an important role in Taiwan's commercial air travel market and that trend will continue as EVA Air introduces new 787s in the coming years," he said
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
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
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],”