The aviation industry could see business fare better this year than last year, if oil prices remain at the same level as last year, according to the new chairman of China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), the nation’s largest carrier.
“We maintain a cautiously optimistic view [for the airline industry] this year,” Sun Hung-hsiang (孫洪祥) told a media briefing after he was promoted to the post yesterday, which was left vacant by former chaiman Chang Chia-juch (張家祝), who became Minister of Economic Affairs on Feb. 18.
The trend in global crude oil prices remained the key factor for the carrier’s profitability this year, as its fuel costs usually account for about 45 percent of total costs, said Sun, who is also CAL’s president.
Sun said the company’s passenger business would grow steadily and forecast that Taiwan’s aviation passenger traffic would show an 8.5 percent increase this year, higher than the 5.2 percent growth in the Asia-Pacific region forecast by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
However, the outlook for the cargo business remains uncertain, he said.
“We had expected a clear and positive sign [for cargo business] for last month or this month, but the prospects remain unclear,” Sun said.
The cargo prospects may improve in the second quarter following the launch of various consumer electronic devices, he added.
Growth for the cargo business in Taiwan this year may be in line with IATA’s 2.1 percent growth forecast for the Asia-Pacific region, Sun said.
CAL is scheduled to begin its fleet replacement this year and continue through 2020, with its newly ordered planes — including Airbus SAS’ 330 series and 350 series, as well as Boeing Co’s 737-800 and 777 series aircraft — expected to be delivered in succession.
The carrier is also set to pick up a narrow-body aircraft for the next generation by the end of this year, he said.
Meanwhile, following the flourish of low-cost carriers (LCCs), stepping into this market is only “a matter of time” for CAL, Sun said, adding that the company would take serious consideration into the issue before making any decision.
CAL’s consolidated revenue inched up 0.28 percent last year to NT$149.89 billion (US$5.05 billion) from a year ago, while net income totaled NT$384.31 million, or NT$0.08 per share, in the first three quarters of last year, compared with NT$214.15 million, or NT$0.05 per share, a year earlier.
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS