China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) yesterday said it has inked a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on establishing an aircraft maintenance joint venture with US-based Nordam Group Inc to tap the Asian aviation maintenance market.
The memorandum was signed in Taipei by CAL chairman Ho Nuan-hsuan (何煖軒) and Nordam vice chairman and chief operating officer of the Asia-Pacific region T. Hastings Siegfried.
CAL, which declined to provide further details on the venture’s funding and shareholding, said that the new company would be the first in Asia to offer maintenance services for thrust reverser and other aircraft composite parts.
Photo provided by China Airlines
The new company would be offering its services under the Nordam brand, CAL said, adding that its Tulsa, Oklahoma-based partner has been seeking to boost and expand its repair services in the Asian market since last year.
Through the joint venture, CAL is hoping to elevate its capacity to perform thrust reverser maintenance for its own fleet, the airline said.
Support from Nordam Group would also help the Taiwanese company’s capacity in servicing composite parts, such as aircraft nosecones, noise-reduction fins on aircraft wings as well as the fuselage, the airline said.
The joint venture is a continuation of a decade-long partnership with Nordam Group in servicing airline’s fleet of Airbus Group SE and Boeing Co aircraft, the companies said at the signing ceremony.
Aside from adding new long-haul flights to Europe, Ho has listed the airline's expansions into the aircraft maintenance market among his top priorities this year.
CAL is aiming to leverage its position as the nation’s biggest airline in leading growth across Taiwan’s aerospace supply chain, and is looking to team up with Aerospace Industrial Development Corp (AIDC, 漢翔航空工業), the nation’s largest civilian and military aircraft manufacturer, Ho said last month.
The company in January inked an agreement with Airbus to help the Taiwanese carrier improve its servicing capacity for Airbus aircraft, while setting its sights on aircraft retrofitting and cabin and frame modification businesses.
Ho said in January that CAL was in talks with Airbus to establish a parts procurement center in Taoyuan and that it is helping it select an appropriate site for the project.
In addition, CAL broke ground for a new facility that is to be operated by Taiwan Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Co Ltd (台灣飛機維修), a fully owned subsidiary.
CAL shares yesterday fell 0.99 percent to NT$10.05, underperforming the TAIEX.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
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
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last