Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd plans to buy or lease as many as nine medium-sized passenger aircraft, expanding its fleet to take advantage of increasing demand for air travel.
Cathay is considering Boeing Co's 777-300 and Airbus SAS's A330-300 aircraft, which can seat between 335 and 480 passengers, said corporate development director Tony Tyler in an interview.
The Hong Kong-based carrier wants the planes delivered by 2007.
"We are in discussions with Boeing, Airbus and some leasing companies to discuss the acquisition or leasing of regional aircraft," Tyler said. "These discussions are already well advanced and we'll be able to announce them fairly soon."
Cathay, Singapore Airlines Ltd and other Asian rivals are expanding or upgrading their fleets as passenger traffic recovers from the SARS outbreak last year. The International Air Transport Association has said airlines worldwide may make a combined profit of US$2 billion to US$4 billion this year, compared with losses of over US$30 billion in the last three years.
Hong Kong-based Cathay also expects to complete its purchase of some used Boeing 747-400 planes soon, some of which will be converted into freighters, Tyler said.
"The market price for the 747-400 is falling and Cathay will be able to pick up cheap aircraft," said Jim Eckes, managing director of airline consultancy Indoswiss Aviation. "That's a smart deal and they can then put off the decision on getting the A380."
Toulouse-based Airbus SAS, which last year delivered more planes than Boeing, wants to win more Asian customers for its 550-seat A380 plane, which will compete with Boeing's 747-400 aircraft.
Cathay on Wednesday posted a smaller-than-expected drop in second-half profit as it cut costs, restored flights and ended fare discounts following the containment of the SARS virus. Net income fell 1 percent to HK$2.54 billion (US$326 million).
Travel demand in Asia is improving, with Cathay's bookings for March and April "looking very solid," Tyler said.
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
INTENSIFYING THREATS: Beijing’s tactics include massive attacks on the government service network, aircraft and naval vessel incursions and damaging undersea cables China is prepared to interfere in November’s nine-in-one local elections by launching massive attacks on the Taiwanese government’s service network (GSN), a report published by the National Security Bureau showed. The report was submitted to the Legislative Yuan ahead of the bureau’s scheduled briefing at the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The national security team has identified about 13,000 suspicious Internet accounts and 860,000 disputed messages, the bureau said of China’s cognitive warfare against Taiwan. The disputed messages focus on major foreign affairs, national defense and economic issues, which were produced using generative artificial intelligence (AI) and distributed through Chinese
COUNTERING HOSTILITY: The draft bill would require the US to increase diplomatic pressure on China and would impose sanctions on those who sabotage undersea cable networks US lawmakers on Thursday introduced a bipartisan bill to bolster the resilience of Taiwan’s submarine cables to counter China’s hostile activities. The proposal, titled the critical undersea infrastructure resilience initiative act, was cosponsored by Republican representatives Mike Lawler and Greg Stanton, and Democratic Representative Dave Min. US Senators John Curtis and Jacky Rosen also introduced a companion bill in the US Senate, which has passed markup at the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Relations. The House’s version of the bill would prioritize the deployment of sensors to detect disruptions or potential sabotage in real-time and enhance early warning capabilities through global intelligence sharing frameworks,
RSS