EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) yesterday said that it aims to bolster its cargo capacity in expectation that revenues from its robust cargo business would offset losses from its passenger business due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
The nation’s largest airline by fleet size in April began using passenger jets to carry cargo in the passenger cabins without transporting any people, in a bid to utilize its idle planes with many flights canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
EVA, with 77 passenger jets and only five Boeing 777 cargo aircraft, plans to use more passenger jets for cargo operations to take advantage of the rising freight rates and demand, EVA president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) told an investors’ conference.
It would take three approaches to enlarge its cargo capacity, including providing cargo-only flights using the holds of passenger jets, putting cargo goods on passenger seats by fastening them and even removing the seats to increase capacity, Sun said.
EVA has received more rush orders to transport medical goods and electronic products than last year, Sun said.
The airline expects the demand to keep rising in the second half of this year, as consumption would likely rebound with outbreaks slowing down, he said.
The demand for COVID-19 vaccine and drug cargo is also predicted to emerge after biotech companies develop them and gain marketing approvals, Sun said, adding that the demand would last for some time.
The airline is to reschedule its cargo flights for different regions to adapt to the global supply transfer amid the pandemic and ongoing US-China trade tensions, he added.
For the first five months, EVA’s passenger business revenue retreated 54 percent from a year earlier to NT$19.59 billion (US$662.14 million), with the number of passengers falling 61 percent to 208 million, corporate data showed.
By comparison, its cargo sales advanced 57.9 percent year-on-year to NT$16.27 billion, despite a 2.2 percent fall in cargo volumes to 237,000 tonnes, corporate data showed.
Cargo flights from Taiwan to the US contributed to 63 percent of EVA’s total cargo revenue, followed by intra-Asian flights that provided 27 percent of total revenue and those to Europe with 10 percent, the data showed.
EVA, which originally planned to receive five more 787-10 jets this year, received the first in February and would delay taking delivery of the second from April to the end of this month, Sun said.
The airline is confident about its working capital as it still has NT$30 billion in cash and has applied for loans of NT$20 billion, he added.
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