EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) yesterday both launched “flight to nowhere” programs for next month’s Mid-Autumn Festival, hoping to offer passengers a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the moon from a plane.
The latest offering follows their programs last month for Father’s Day and Lovers’ Day (also known as the Qixi Festival), in which tickets sold out quickly.
EVA said it would offer one evening flight per day during the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend from Oct. 1 to Oct. 4.
Photo courtesy of EVA Airways Corp
The planes are scheduled to take off after 6pm so that passengers can view the moon, it told the Taipei Times by telephone.
EVA is deploying its Boeing 787-10 planes for the four flights, which have 342 seats compared with 309 for the Hello Kitty-themed Airbus SE A330-300 planes that it used before, it said.
“The fact that a Boeing 787-10 aircraft has the largest windows among all wide-body commercial planes would be a selling point,” it said.
Similar to its previous programs, the Boeing 787-10 jets would not land in a foreign airport, but would make a sightseeing loop over Taiwan’s west coast and Japan’s Ryukyu Islands, EVA said.
The planes would descend to an altitude of about 20,000 feet (6,096m), compared with regular commercial flights’ 9,144m, to give passengers a better view, it said.
With tickets priced at NT$5,888 (US$199.4) for an economy-class seat and NT$7,888 for a business-class seat, EVA is forecast to make at least NT$8.32 million in revenue from the four flights.
EVA is planning to launch another six “fly-to-nowhere” programs over the Double Ten National Day, Halloween, Double 11 Singles’ Day, Christmas and New Year’s Day, it said.
“The revenue we make from the special flights would be nothing compared with those generated from our international flights prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, but at least those programs could help maintain our cash flow,” an EVA official said.
Meanwhile, Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) plans to offer six “fly to the moon” flights on Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, using its A321neo planes.
However, it has not finalized its ticket prices and flight schedule, Starlux said, adding that it would not all be evening flights.
Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航), the nation’s only low-cost carrier, yesterday said it as still evaluating whether to offer such special flights, after canceling its Lovers’ Day flights due to lower-than-expected sales.
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
MARKET FACTORS: Navitas Semiconductor Inc said that Powerchip is to take over from TSMC as its supplier of high-voltage gallium nitride chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday in a statement said that it would phase out its compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) business over the next two years, citing market dynamics. The decision would not affect its financial targets announced previously, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said. “We are working closely with our customers to ensure a smooth transition and remain committed to meeting their needs during this period,” it said. “Our focus continues to be on delivering sustained value to our partners and the market.” TSMC’s latest move came unexpectedly, as the chipmaker had said in its annual report that it has
Rick Cassidy, the chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co's (TSMC, 台積電) US subsidiary, TSMC Arizona Corp, plans to retire, but the company has yet to name a successor. After Cassidy made his intention to retire known, TSMC Arizona held a special general meeting and approved a resolution that Cassidy would not continue as chairman and would not remain as a director, TSMC said in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange last night. The meeting also approved a plan to appoint TSMC Arizona president Rose Castanares as a director, the company said, adding that Cassidy has been named as an advisor
SECURITY WARNING: The company possesses key 3-nanometer technology, and Taiwan should prevent it from being transferred to China, a lawmaker said The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it would conduct a “strict review” of any proposed acquisition of Taiwanese tech company Source Photonics Co (索爾思光電), following media reports that a Chinese firm was planning to buy the company in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區). Local media reported that Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing Co (東山精密), China’s largest printed circuit board manufacturer, had announced plans to acquire Source Photonics for 5.9 billion yuan (US$823.1 million). The ministry said it has not received an application from Source Photonics and has formally notified the company that any buyout would constitute a change in its ownership structure. The
RSS