China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空) and EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空) shares rallied yesterday on the local bourse on the news that Taiwan and Japan will soon be signing an open-skies agreement.
Both airlines closed limit-up, with CAL, Taiwan’s largest air carrier, surging NT$0.9 to NT$14.2, while EVA Airways, the nation’s second-largest air carrier, rose NT$1.1 to NT$17.35, according to data from the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
“The strong buying of CAL and EVA shares showed that investors’ optimism toward the -aviation agreement since Japan has served as one of the major destinations for the two carriers,” Hua Nan Securities Co (華南永昌證券) analyst Henry Miao (苗台生) said, referring to the 47.2 million CAL shares and the 24.75 million EVA Airways shares that changed hands yesterday.
LIBERALIZATION
“Once commercial aviation services are further liberalized, revenue in both passenger and cargo flights is expected to increase accordingly,” Miao said.
It was reported that Mitsuo Ohashi, chairman of the Japan Interchange Association, who is scheduled to visit Taiwan, would sign an open-skies agreement during the trip to help boost bilateral commercial aviation exchanges between the two countries, although the reports were dismissed as rumor and denied yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
All Taiwanese air carriers could apply to operate scheduled services to 10 Japanese destinations except Tokyo under the agreement, according to the Civil Aeronautics Administration.
“This would help increase our [CAL’s] revenue and profit, as Japanese routes are important drivers for the company,” CAL -spokesman Hamilton Liu (劉國芊) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
Following the signing of the agreement, CAL plans to launch new routes as well as increase its number of flights to Japan according to demand, Liu said.
FLEXIBILITY
EVA spokesperson Nieh Kuo-wei (聶國維) also welcomed the planned open-skies agreement, saying that the company would carefully evaluate the necessity of launching more flights to and from Japan.
However, the signing of an open-skies agreement might put more pressure on CAL and EVA Airways as it could encourage more competitors to enter the market, a brokerage house said in a research note yesterday.
“Although the opening may make the two air carriers’ operations more flexible, it would lead to lower tickets prices amid increasing flights and competitors,” Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said.
Smaller air carriers, such as TransAsia Airways Corp (復興航空) and Mandarin Airlines Corp (華信航空), would benefit the most by expanding into the Japanese market following the signing of the agreement, the local brokerage said.
CAL and EVA are currently the only two Taiwanese air carriers to fly Japanese routes.
Their passenger load factor on Japanese routes was 80 percent for the past three months, data showed.
Additional reporting by CNA
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
‘DECENT RESULTS’: The company said it is confident thanks to an improving world economy and uptakes in new wireless and AI technologies, despite US uncertainty Pegatron Corp (和碩) yesterday said it plans to build a new server manufacturing factory in the US this year to address US President Donald Trump’s new tariff policy. That would be the second server production base for Pegatron in addition to the existing facilities in Taoyuan, the iPhone assembler said. Servers are one of the new businesses Pegatron has explored in recent years to develop a more balanced product lineup. “We aim to provide our services from a location in the vicinity of our customers,” Pegatron president and chief executive officer Gary Cheng (鄭光治) told an online earnings conference yesterday. “We
LEAK SOURCE? There would be concern over the possibility of tech leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, an analyst said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday stayed mum after a report said that the chipmaker has pitched chip designers Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Broadcom Inc about taking a stake in a joint venture to operate Intel Corp’s factories. Industry sources told the Central News Agency (CNA) that the possibility of TSMC proposing to operate Intel’s wafer fabs is low, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has always focused on its core business. There is also concern over possible technology leaks if TSMC were to form a joint venture to operate Intel’s factories, Concord Securities Co (康和證券) analyst Kerry Huang (黃志祺)
It was late morning and steam was rising from water tanks atop the colorful, but opaque-windowed, “soapland” sex parlors in a historic Tokyo red-light district. Walking through the narrow streets, camera in hand, was Beniko — a former sex worker who is trying to capture the spirit of the area once known as Yoshiwara through photography. “People often talk about this neighborhood having a ‘bad history,’” said Beniko, who goes by her nickname. “But the truth is that through the years people have lived here, made a life here, sometimes struggled to survive. I want to share that reality.” In its mid-17th to
RSS