EVA Airways Corp (EVA, 長榮航空) said it expects sales and profitability to perform “excellently” next year on the back of a downward trend in global crude oil prices, the steady recovery of the global economy and the rebound in the company’s cargo business.
“The decline of global crude oil prices has benefited the company’s cost structure,” EVA chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) told a press conference.
If global oil prices sustain the recent trend and the global economy remains solid next year, EVA might have a chance of posting excellent sales and profitability after seeing signs of improvement this year, Chang said.
In addition, EVA might also see extra momentum from its cargo business next year, driven by the demand for Apple Inc’s new iPhone and iPad products around the world, he said.
As for the passenger business, Chang said steady growth is likely to continue next year as EVA plans to launch two new regular services, from Taipei to Houston and from Greater Kaohsiung to Osaka.
EVA has raised its overall capacity in the passenger sector by about 10 percent for this year, with passenger capacity next year still expected to show an upturn due to the carrier’s development in routes to North America and northeastern Asia.
However, there are still some uncertainties facing the carrier next year, including the value of the New Taiwan dollar and the deadly Ebola outbreak in west Africa, according to Chang.
A depreciation of the NT dollar against the US dollar would raise EVA’s operating costs, offsetting the positive effect from a decrease in fuel costs, he said.
The Ebola epidemic is likely to have a negative impact on the global airlines sector, similar to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndromes (SARS) in 2003, he said. However, thus far, the impact is still limited, he added.
EVA posted NT$98.15 billion (US$3.23 billion) in consolidated revenue for the first nine months of the year, up 5.97 percent from a year earlier, company statistics showed.
The carrier reported a net loss of NT$789.35 million, or NT$0.24 per share, for the first six months of this year and might return to the black in the third quarter. The company is to release its third-quarter results in the middle of next month.
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