EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) has canceled orders with Boeing Co for seven 787-10 Dreamliner passenger jets, replacing them with orders for three 777F cargo aircraft and four smaller 787-9 jets, as the airline looks to grow its cargo business and optimize its network.
“We are happy to have reached an agreement with Boeing about the order adjustment and expect it to help optimize our network,” an EVA official told the Taipei Times yesterday.
The airline signed the new agreement with Boeing on Monday, the official added.
EVA has received three of 18 787-10 jets that it purchased in 2015. The 18 jets were valued at US$6.58 billion at the time.
The three 777F and four 787-9 aircraft are valued at US$2.41 billion based on their list prices, lower than the US$2.56 billion cost of the seven 787-10s, EVA said.
The official did not disclose how much EVA had agreed to pay Boeing for the new orders, citing a confidentiality agreement, but said that the company had negotiated with Boeing about how to address the discrepancy in cost.
The size of the airline’s cargo fleet would rise from five to eight aircraft following the deal, compared with local rival China Airlines Ltd’s (中華航空) cargo fleet size of 18 aircraft.
As Boeing’s production has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the delivery dates of the three 777F jets have not been finalized, the official said.
The airline would continue to use some of its passenger jets for its cargo operations before the three new 777F freighters join its fleet, the official added.
The airline’s cargo business posted revenue of NT$24.88 billion (US$842.8 million) for the first seven months of this year, a 76 percent year-on-year increase compared with a 63 percent decline in revenue at its passenger business.
The airline expects the cargo business to continue booming for the next few years, the official said.
The purchase of the smaller 787-9 jet — which can travel farther than the 787-10, but has a smaller capacity — would help EVA implement more direct flights between Taipei and European cities, such as Vienna, the official said.
Including the four 787-9 jets ordered and two 787-10 jets EVA has leased, the airline would have eight 787-9s and 13 787-10s in operation after taking delivery by 2022, the official added.
PROTECTIONISM: China hopes to help domestic chipmakers gain more market share while preparing local tech companies for the possibility of more US sanctions Beijing is stepping up pressure on Chinese companies to buy locally produced artificial intelligence (AI) chips instead of Nvidia Corp products, part of the nation’s effort to expand its semiconductor industry and counter US sanctions. Chinese regulators have been discouraging companies from purchasing Nvidia’s H20 chips, which are used to develop and run AI models, sources familiar with the matter said. The policy has taken the form of guidance rather than an outright ban, as Beijing wants to avoid handicapping its own AI start-ups and escalating tensions with the US, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because the
Taipei is today suspending its US$2.5 trillion stock market as Super Typhoon Krathon 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. Yesterday, schools and offices were closed in several cities and counties in southern and eastern Taiwan, including in the key industrial port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan, which started canceling flights, ship sailings and some train services earlier this week, has wind and rain advisories in place for much of the island. It regularly experiences typhoons, and in July shut offices and schools as
Her white-gloved, waistcoated uniform impeccable, 22-year-old Hazuki Okuno boards a bullet train replica to rehearse the strict protocols behind the smooth operation of a Japanese institution turning 60 Tuesday. High-speed Shinkansen trains began running between Tokyo and Osaka on Oct. 1, 1964, heralding a new era for rail travel as Japan grew into an economic superpower after World War II. The service remains integral to the nation’s economy and way of life — so keeping it dazzlingly clean, punctual and accident-free is a serious job. At a 10-story, state-of-the-art staff training center, Okuno shouted from the window and signaled to imaginary colleagues, keeping
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
RSS