China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said that its low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan (台灣虎航) returned to profit last month, following the ending of the subsidiary’s partnership with a Singaporean peer.
Tigerair Taiwan, a joint venture between CAL and Tiger Airways Singapore Pte Ltd, became the Taiwanese carrier’s wholly owned subsidiary after it bought back a 10 percent stake held by its Singaporean partner for an undisclosed amount in December last year.
The low-cost carrier has been struggling since it began operations in 2014.
“Tigerair Taiwan will be operated as an independent brand, and we believe that the change would bolster the company’s image among consumers,” Tigerair Taiwan chief financial officer and spokesperson Hansen Lin (林俊男) said.
Lin attributed the company’s recent turnaround to scrapping loss-making routes and adding flights to popular destinations.
The company has been cutting back routes to destinations further than four hours flight time from Taiwan in favor of flights of between two and three hours, which suits the low-cost carrier model, Lin said, adding that among new destinations that are to be introduced this year are Jeju Island and Daegu in South Korea.
Sales from travel agencies increased last month, Lin said, adding that backpackers were previously the company’s major source of revenue.
He said he expects the company’s average passenger load factor to improve to 80 percent by the end of this year, from its present 70 percent.
Meanwhile, Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), another CAL subsidiary focusing on regional and domestic flights, is to see a significant expansion of its fleet this year, CAL chairman Ho Nuan-hsuan (何煖軒) said.
Mandarin Airlines is to form a second fleet this year, with aircraft procurement slated to be completed in the first half, Ho said.
“We will not be looking for new aircraft, as there are many used jets on the market right now,” Ho said, while declining to confirm if the company is eyeing the assets of shuttered TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空).
“Mandarin Airlines has a fleet of six jet airliners and we are looking to dispose of them and lease aircraft suitable for short-haul flights of about two hours,” Ho said.
Ho gave an upbeat outlook on CAL, saying that newly added direct flights to Europe have been running at near full capacity.
However, the company has pushed back the launch of direct flights to London to near the end of this year due to delays in the delivery of its new Airbus SAS A350 jets, Ho said.
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
TEMPORARY TRUCE: China has made concessions to ease rare earth trade controls, among others, while Washington holds fire on a 100% tariff on all Chinese goods China is effectively suspending implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminating investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House on Saturday issued a fact sheet outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier in the week by US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) that aimed to ease tensions between the world’s two largest economies. Under the deal, China is to issue general licenses valid for exports of rare earths, gallium, germanium, antimony and graphite “for the benefit of US end users and their suppliers
Dutch chipmaker Nexperia BV’s China unit yesterday said that it had established sufficient inventories of finished goods and works-in-progress, and that its supply chain remained secure and stable after its parent halted wafer supplies. The Dutch company suspended supplies of wafers to its Chinese assembly plant a week ago, calling it “a direct consequence of the local management’s recent failure to comply with the agreed contractual payment terms,” Reuters reported on Friday last week. Its China unit called Nexperia’s suspension “unilateral” and “extremely irresponsible,” adding that the Dutch parent’s claim about contractual payment was “misleading and highly deceptive,” according to a statement
The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data center projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically made artificial intelligence (AI) chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centers that are less than 30 percent complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage would be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China’s most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a
RSS