EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空) yesterday announced plans to spend US$100 million to upgrade the business class on its 15 Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, in the hope that a focus on premium customers will help to increase revenue.
EVA, the nation’s second-largest carrier, will complete the upgrade by August next year, with first plane to be finished by the end of this month set to start operating on the Taipei-New York route from June 2.
“Faced with tougher economy-class service competition, the company is looking to attract more premium customers through the upgrade,” EVA president Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) told a media briefing.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Chang said the rise of budget airlines had made it increasingly difficult for carriers to focus solely on economy class, which was why EVA had decided to follow Cathay Pacific Airways and Singapore Airlines by targeting business-class customers.
To achieve this goal, EVA would reduce the number of business-class seats, but could increase the price by up to 20 percent, further helping increase company revenue, Chang said.
While market observers remain downbeat about the prospects of the airline sector this year, Chang said it was always good to invest more when economic sentiment was close to the bottom because of lower costs.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Meanwhile, Chang said he expected the company’s revenue to improve in the second quarter from the first quarter on the back of higher cargo sales led by stable freight rate and volume.
However, the carrier’s performance during the July-to--September period, the peak season for passenger demand, would remain the most important driver for the company this year, he added
In addition, rising crude oil prices continue to increase cost pressure and affect the company’s profitability, he said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“Actually, we are likely to improve our sales performance this year,” Chang said. “The only downside is that all our hard work is -going to benefit the oil companies.”
However, EVA had no plans to buy an oil refiner like Delta Air Lines Inc did, as the company does not have the necessary expertise to run an oil refining -company, Chang said.
EVA reported NT$1.08 billion (US$36.9 million), or NT$0.33 per share, in net losses for the first quarter of the year, compared with profits of NT$269.32 million, or NT$0.08 per share, a year earlier, Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) data showed.
However, revenue for the company totaled NT$25.57 billion in the January-to-March period, up 5.7 percent from the previous year, statistics showed.
EVA’s shares fell 0.28 percent to close at NT$17.95 on the TAIEX yesterday, stock exchange data showed.
RECORD BUDGET: TSMC does plan to raise its proposed capital expenditure a lot, and could benefit if Intel outsources more of its production to foundries, analysts said Intel Corp’s earnings conference call on Thursday is expected to clarify the US semiconductor giant’s outsourcing production plans, which would be crucial regarding Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) performance, analysts said. “TSMC stands to benefit if Intel outsources more of its fabrication to foundries,” SinoPac Securities Investment Service Corp (永豐投顧) analysts said in a note on Friday. Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co (元大投顧) was more cautious, saying that Intel’s contribution initially would be limited, but its outsourcing plans would still highlight TSMC’s leadership in technology, it added. “Intel will continue to manufacture server or high-end central processing units [CPUs], which have higher
MOBILE SMART: The Dimensity 1200 is 22 percent better in terms of performance than its predecessor, and 25 percent more power-efficient, the handset chip designer said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday unveiled its premium 5G processors — the Dimensity 1200 and Dimensity 1100 — as it vies for a larger slice of the world’s rapidly growing 5G smartphone market. Manufactured using Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (台積電) 6-nanometer process technology, the Dimensity 1200 processor performs 22 percent better than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+ processor, and is 25 percent more power-efficient, MediaTek said. Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi Corp (小米) and Realme Mobile Telecommunications (Shenzhen) Co (銳爾覓移動通信) are to be the first adopters of the latest Dimensity chips, the companies said during a virtual media briefing. Xiaomi plans to equip its first
Norway’s oil and gas reserves have made it one of the world’s wealthiest countries, but its dreams for deep-sea discovery now center on something different. This time, Oslo is looking for a leading role in mining copper, zinc and other metals found on the seabed and in hot demand in green technologies. The country could license companies for deep-sea mining as early as 2023, the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy said, potentially placing it among the first countries to harvest seabed metals for electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar farms. However, that could also place it on the front line of
‘BROAD RANGE’: The US Department of Commerce intends to deny a significant number of license requests for exports to Huawei, an industry association said US President Donald Trump’s administration notified Huawei Technologies Co (華為) suppliers, including chipmaker Intel Corp, that it is revoking certain licenses to sell to the Chinese company and intends to reject dozens of other applications to supply the telecommunications firm, people familiar with the matter told reporters. The action — likely the last against Huawei under Trump — is the latest in a long-running effort to weaken the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, which Washington sees as a national security threat. The notices came amid a flurry of US efforts against China in the final days of Trump’s administration. US president-elect Joe
RSS