EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) saw its revenue last month plummet 17 percent annually to NT$13.28 billion (US$428.03 million) amid labor action, the lowest in 16 months, while state-owned China Airlines Ltd’s (CAL, 中華航空) revenue rose 3 percent.
EVA’s sales drop last month nearly erased the gains it made in the first five months of the year as it posted a mere 0.85 percent year-on-year increase in first-half revenue to NT$88.17 billion, company data showed.
The flight attendants’ strike, which started on June 20, forced the airline to cancel 469 round-trip flights as of the end of last month, with revenue lost totaling NT$2.11 billion, EVA said.
The industrial action ended at midnight on Tuesday, but the airline forecast that revenue would fall again this month, as it had to cancel 266 flights from Monday last week to Tuesday, and more until Friday next week, EVA deputy spokesman Eric Lin (林司忠) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
“We will strive to boost ticket sales next month to improve revenue,” Lin said. “Sales have shown signs of recovery after the end of the strike.”
The airline still hopes to meet its goal of achieving 10 percent growth in revenue for the year, which EVA revealed at an investors’ conference in March, Lin said.
CAL revenue rose 3.02 percent from a year earlier to NT$14.5 billion last month, as an annual increase of 7.06 percent in passenger revenue was partially offset by an annual decrease of 5.17 percent in cargo revenue, company data showed.
For the first six months, CAL’s cumulative revenue expanded 2.46 percent to NT$82.99 billion, of which passenger revenue advanced 4.1 percent to NT$55.45 billion, but cargo revenue fell 0.9 percent to NT$21.09 billion, data showed.
CAL benefited from the EVA strike, it said, but added that the peak season effect in summer also lent support to its sales performance.
Passenger revenue showed marked increases last month from flights between Taiwan and Northeast Asian nations, and between Taiwan and China, the airline said.
However, the airline’s cargo business entered a slow season last month, it said.
Shares of EVA yesterday rose 0.33 percent to NT$15, while CAL remained flat at NT$9.86, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
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