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.
Sweeping policy changes under US Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr are having a chilling effect on vaccine makers as anti-vaccine rhetoric has turned into concrete changes in inoculation schedules and recommendations, investors and executives said. The administration of US President Donald Trump has in the past year upended vaccine recommendations, with the country last month ending its longstanding guidance that all children receive inoculations against flu, hepatitis A and other diseases. The unprecedented changes have led to diminished vaccine usage, hurt the investment case for some biotechs, and created a drag that would likely dent revenues and
Global semiconductor stocks advanced yesterday, as comments by Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) at Davos, Switzerland, helped reinforce investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence (AI). Samsung Electronics Co gained as much as 5 percent to an all-time high, helping drive South Korea’s benchmark KOSPI above 5,000 for the first time. That came after the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose more than 3 percent to a fresh record on Wednesday, with a boost from Nvidia. The gains came amid broad risk-on trade after US President Donald Trump withdrew his threat of tariffs on some European nations over backing for Greenland. Huang further
Nvidia Corp’s GB300 platform is expected to account for 70 to 80 percent of global artificial intelligence (AI) server rack shipments this year, while adoption of its next-generation Vera Rubin 200 platform is to gradually gain momentum after the third quarter of the year, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said. Servers based on Nvidia’s GB300 chips entered mass production last quarter and they are expected to become the mainstay models for Taiwanese server manufacturers this year, Trendforce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) said in an interview. This year is expected to be a breakout year for AI servers based on a variety of chips, as
HSBC Bank Taiwan Ltd (匯豐台灣商銀) and the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to enhance cooperation on the suspicious transaction analysis mechanism. This landmark agreement makes HSBC the first foreign bank in Taiwan to establish such a partnership with the High Prosecutors Office, underscoring its commitment to active anti-fraud initiatives, financial inclusion, and the “Treating Customers Fairly” principle. Through this deep public-private collaboration, both parties aim to co-create a secure financial ecosystem via early warning detection and precise fraud prevention technologies. At the signing ceremony, HSBC Taiwan CEO and head of banking Adam Chen (陳志堅)
RSS