Jetstar Asia, the international budget unit of Qantas Airways Ltd, said it expects to make a profit in one to two years.
The Singapore-based airline, which on Monday started flights to Hong Kong, will be profitable "within a short period of time," Con Korfiatis, Jetstar Asia's chief operating officer, said in a television interview in Hong Kong yesterday.
PHOTO: YAO CHIEH-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES
Jetstar Asia is the third low-cost airline to operate out of Singapore after privately-owned Valuair and Tiger Airways, which is controlled by Singapore Airlines Ltd. It also faces competition from other budget carriers in the region including Kuala Lumpur-based AirAsia Bhd and Bangkok-based 1-2-Go.
Passenger traffic in Southeast Asia, which has a combined population of about 500 million people, is forecast to grow an average 6.1 percent each year until 2023, compared with a global average of 5.2 percent, according to Boeing Co, the world's second-largest maker of commercial planes.
Jetstar Asia will start daily flights to Taipei on tomorrow. The company will offer a one-way ticket between Singapore and Taipei priced at NT$1,788, excluding tax and insurance. The offer is good for the first week it flies the route. Ticket prices will then be raised, depending on market demand.
Jetstar Asia will also start daily flights to Pattaya in Thailand on Dec. 20 and plans to start services to cities including Shanghai, Jakarta and Manila from January.
"We're interested in more destinations in China. We're also interested in Vietnam and more destinations in Thailand and Indonesia," Korfiatis said.
The airline, which is starting operations with four leased Airbus SAS A320s, will have another four by the end of next year.
The A320 can seat 150 passengers and has a maximum range of 4,800km.
Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte, a state-owned investment company, owns 19 percent of Jetstar Asia. Singapore businessmen Tony Chew and Wong Fong Fui hold a combined 32 percent stake.
Temasek, which is the majority shareholder of Singapore Airlines, also holds 11 percent of Tiger Airways.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced