EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空), the nation’s second-largest airline, yesterday announced plans to add seven more of Boeing Co’s 777-300ER aircraft to its fleet to replace its B747-series airplanes and pursue greater energy efficiency.
The air carrier signed a US$930 million contract with Boeing to purchase three new B777-300ERs and inked an agreement to lease the remaining four planes from GE Capital Aviation Services Ltd, a commercial aircraft financing and leasing unit of General Electric Corp.
Deliveries are set to start in June 2014 and be completed by June 2016.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Deployment of the additional seven of these aircraft and gradual replacement of our other aircraft types will standardize our fleet and give us greater operational flexibility,” EVA president Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said at the signing ceremony.
EVA is a launch customer for the B777-300ER, Chang said. The air carrier operates 15 B777-300ER aircraft on its long-haul routes.
Compared with the B747-series aircraft, the B777-300ER consumes 22 percent less fuel, reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 22 percent and costs up to 20 percent less to operate, Chang said, citing analyses from Boeing.
Following the delivery of the new aircraft, EVA will gradually replace the operations of its B747 series fleet, Chang said, adding that the introduction of new planes will improve the company’s profitability.
Other than passenger jets, EVA will also move ahead with its plans to purchase cargo freighters after seeing some recovery in the cargo business, to replace its old cargo aircraft, Chang said.
EVA has so far divested itself of two of its six MD-series freighters this year and is expected to sell the other four by the end of this year.
Although the price of Brent crude oil fell 5.28 percent to US$113.18 a barrel at the Monday close from a week earlier, the airline sector continues to face the challenge of high jet fuel prices this year, which dragged down carriers’ profitability in the first quarter.
Aviation fuel prices may not reflect a recent downturn in crude oil prices right away, as it is set according to the average crude oil price from the previous month, Chang said.
However, Chang said the company is confident it would return to profit in the third quarter on the back of seasonal demand in the passenger business and will make efforts to break even for the first half of the year.
EVA reported NT$1.08 billion (US$36.77 million), or NT$0.33 per share, in net losses for the first quarter of the year, company financial data showed.
Meanwhile, Chang said he expects crude oil prices to continue their drop in the long term amid an increase in demand for alternative energy sources and falling demand for oil.
“In my opinion, a reasonable crude oil price is expected to fall at least to the level of US$80 a barrel,” Chang said.
PATENTS: MediaTek Inc said it would not comment on ongoing legal cases, but does not expect the legal action by Huawei to affect its business operations Smartphone integrated chips designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) on Friday said that a lawsuit filed by Chinese smartphone brand Huawei Technologies Co (華為) over alleged patent infringements would have little impact on its operations. In an announcement posted on the Taiwan Stock Exchange, MediaTek said that it would not comment on an ongoing legal case. However, the company said that Huawei’s legal action would have little impact on its operations. MediaTek’s statement came after China-based PRIP Research said on Thursday that Huawei filed a lawsuit with a Chinese district court claiming that MediaTek infringed on its patents. The infringement mentioned in the lawsuit likely involved
Taipei is today suspending work, classes and its US$2.4 trillion stock market as Typhoon Gaemi approaches Taiwan with strong winds and heavy rain. The nation is not conducting securities, currency or fixed income trading, statements from its stock and currency exchanges said. Authorities had yesterday issued a warning that the storm could affect people on land and canceled some ship crossings and domestic flights. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) expects its local chipmaking fabs to maintain normal production, the company said in an e-mailed statement. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp said it has activated routine typhoon alert
GROWTH: TSMC increased its projected revenue growth for this year to more than 25 percent, citing stronger-than-expected demand for AI devices and smartphones The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) yesterday raised its forecast for Taiwan’s GDP growth this year from 3.29 percent to 3.85 percent, as exports and private investment recovered faster than it predicted three months ago. The Taipei-based think tank also expects that Taiwan would see a 8.19 percent increase in exports this year, better than the 7.55 percent it projected in April, as US technology giants spent more money on artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure and development. “There will be more AI servers going forward, but it remains to be seen if the momentum would extend to personal computers, smartphones and
Catastrophic computer outages caused by a software update from one company have once again exposed the dangers of global technological dependence on a handful of players, experts said on Friday. A flawed update sent out by the little-known security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc brought airlines, TV stations and myriad other aspects of daily life to a standstill. The outages affected companies or individuals that use CrowdStrike on the Microsoft Inc’s Windows platform. When they applied the update, the incompatible software crashed computers into a frozen state known as the “blue screen of death.” “Today CrowdStrike has become a household name, but not in