Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) is to concentrate on operating routes from Taiwan to second-tier cities in Asia until mid-2021 to avoid head-to-head competition with the nation’s two major airlines in big cities, chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said yesterday.
Starlux is to initially use five Airbus SE A321neo aircraft when it begins services next year, he said.
As the narrow-body aircraft have less capacity and is less efficient compared with the wide-body jets used by other airlines, it would be less competitive if it flies to big cities in Asia, he added.
Photo: Kao Shih-ching, Taipei Times
“We have to consider what kinds of airplanes our competitors use when choosing destinations. We do not want to play hardball with them,” Chang told a news conference in Taipei, where he introduced the uniforms for the airline’s pilots, flight attendants and ground staff.
Some passengers prefer twin-aisle aircraft when flying to big cities, which Starlux also took into account, he said.
StarLux has chosen Macau; Penang, Malaysia; and Da Nang, Vietnam; as its first three destinations when services start on Jan. 23, because they are second-tier cities, he added.
The airline would gradually expand its network to other second-tier cities in Asia next year, Chang said, adding that it would not fly to first-tier cities in Asia until after taking delivery of five A350-900 wide-body aircraft in 2021.
That means Starlux would not offer flights to Japan next year, even though it is one of the most-favored destinations for Taiwanese, he said, adding that Southeast Asia remains the biggest market for transfer business.
Starlux is to receive one Airbus A321neo later this month, which Chang said he would fly himself from Hamburg, Germany, to “make sure everything with the new plane is okay.”
The second and third A321neo aircraft would be delivered later this year and in early January before StarLux begins services, he said.
The airline is to take delivery of another two A321neos later next year and expects to receive a total of 12 airplanes — including A350s and A321neos — in 2021, which would be the highest number of deliveries in a single year in Taiwan, he added.
Starlux is confident that it would be able to beat rivals that also use single-aisle jets, as it has equipped its narrow-body aircraft with amenities typically offered only in wide-body jetliners, such as lie-flat business-class seats, Chang said.
It would provide free Wi-Fi service for all business and economy-class passengers, he added.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) last week recorded an increase in the number of shareholders to the highest in almost eight months, despite its share price falling 3.38 percent from the previous week, Taiwan Stock Exchange data released on Saturday showed. As of Friday, TSMC had 1.88 million shareholders, the most since the week of April 25 and an increase of 31,870 from the previous week, the data showed. The number of shareholders jumped despite a drop of NT$50 (US$1.59), or 3.38 percent, in TSMC’s share price from a week earlier to NT$1,430, as investors took profits from their earlier gains
In a high-security Shenzhen laboratory, Chinese scientists have built what Washington has spent years trying to prevent: a prototype of a machine capable of producing the cutting-edge semiconductor chips that power artificial intelligence (AI), smartphones and weapons central to Western military dominance, Reuters has learned. Completed early this year and undergoing testing, the prototype fills nearly an entire factory floor. It was built by a team of former engineers from Dutch semiconductor giant ASML who reverse-engineered the company’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) machines, according to two people with knowledge of the project. EUV machines sit at the heart of a technological Cold
Taiwan’s long-term economic competitiveness will hinge not only on national champions like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) but also on the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and other emerging technologies, a US-based scholar has said. At a lecture in Taipei on Tuesday, Jeffrey Ding, assistant professor of political science at the George Washington University and author of "Technology and the Rise of Great Powers," argued that historical experience shows that general-purpose technologies (GPTs) — such as electricity, computers and now AI — shape long-term economic advantages through their diffusion across the broader economy. "What really matters is not who pioneers
TAIWAN VALUE CHAIN: Foxtron is to fully own Luxgen following the transaction and it plans to launch a new electric model, the Foxtron Bria, in Taiwan next year Yulon Motor Co (裕隆汽車) yesterday said that its board of directors approved the disposal of its electric vehicle (EV) unit, Luxgen Motor Co (納智捷汽車), to Foxtron Vehicle Technologies Co (鴻華先進) for NT$787.6 million (US$24.98 million). Foxtron, a half-half joint venture between Yulon affiliate Hua-Chuang Automobile Information Technical Center Co (華創車電) and Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), expects to wrap up the deal in the first quarter of next year. Foxtron would fully own Luxgen following the transaction, including five car distributing companies, outlets and all employees. The deal is subject to the approval of the Fair Trade Commission, Foxtron said. “Foxtron will be
RSS