Start-up Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) earlier this month had a fresh capital injection of NT$4 billion (US$136.94 million) at the request of the country’s top aviation regulator, after the airline reported a net loss of NT$3.01 billion for the whole of last year.
Ninety percent of the NT$4 billion came from Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) and the other 10 percent from other major shareholders and StarLux employees, the airline said in a statement yesterday.
Starlux said it would continue to review whether more capital is needed.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The injection brought the airline’s paid-in capital to NT$15.36 billion, company data showed.
Starlux, which was established in 2018 and offered its first flight in January 2020, has had a bumpy ride because of the COVID-19 pandemic — it reported an aggregate net loss of NT$5.4 billion over the past two years, the largest loss among local airlines, data released by the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) showed.
Late last year, the CAA required the airline to increase its capital because its accumulated losses totaled NT$6.93 billion, more than half of its paid-in capital of NT$11.36 billion.
Unlike other airlines that have shifted to air cargo to offset the loss in passenger revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic, Starlux’s cargo capacity is limited, as it only operated six single-aisle Airbus A321neo planes last year, company data showed.
However, the airline said it still tried to increase its revenue by shifting its flights to destinations with stable passenger demand, as well as cities that are hubs for cargo operations, it said.
Starlux’s revenue last year totaled NT$795 million, doubling from a year earlier and ranking fifth in Taiwan, after China Airlines (CAL, 中華航空), EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), Uni Airways Co (立榮航空) and Mandarin Airlines (華信航空), CAA data showed.
Starlux’s growth in revenue is the highest among local airlines, followed by CAL’s 24 percent rise and EVA Airways’ 20 percent increase, the CAA data showed.
However, Starlux’s net assets per share last year stood at NT$3.96, the lowest among local airlines, while its debt ratio was 82 percent, the second-biggest after Daily Air Corp’s (德安航空) 87 percent, the data showed.
The airline said it plans to receive more A321neo jets and A330neo planes this year to expand its capacity on the expectation that air travel would recover as countries ease their border controls.
SEEKING CLARITY: Washington should not adopt measures that create uncertainties for ‘existing semiconductor investments,’ TSMC said referring to its US$165 billion in the US Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) told the US that any future tariffs on Taiwanese semiconductors could reduce demand for chips and derail its pledge to increase its investment in Arizona. “New import restrictions could jeopardize current US leadership in the competitive technology industry and create uncertainties for many committed semiconductor capital projects in the US, including TSMC Arizona’s significant investment plan in Phoenix,” the chipmaker wrote in a letter to the US Department of Commerce. TSMC issued the warning in response to a solicitation for comments by the department on a possible tariff on semiconductor imports by US President Donald Trump’s
The government has launched a three-pronged strategy to attract local and international talent, aiming to position Taiwan as a new global hub following Nvidia Corp’s announcement that it has chosen Taipei as the site of its Taiwan headquarters. Nvidia cofounder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Monday last week announced during his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei that the Nvidia Constellation, the company’s planned Taiwan headquarters, would be located in the Beitou-Shilin Technology Park (北投士林科技園區) in Taipei. Huang’s decision to establish a base in Taiwan is “primarily due to Taiwan’s talent pool and its strength in the semiconductor
An earnings report from semiconductor giant and artificial intelligence (AI) bellwether Nvidia Corp takes center stage for Wall Street this week, as stocks hit a speed bump of worries over US federal deficits driving up Treasury yields. US equities pulled back last week after a torrid rally, as investors turned their attention to tax and spending legislation poised to swell the US government’s US$36 trillion in debt. Long-dated US Treasury yields rose amid the fiscal worries, with the 30-year yield topping 5 percent and hitting its highest level since late 2023. Stocks were dealt another blow on Friday when US President Donald
UNCERTAINTY: Investors remain worried that trade negotiations with Washington could go poorly, given Trump’s inconsistency on tariffs in his second term, experts said The consumer confidence index this month fell for a ninth consecutive month to its lowest level in 13 months, as global trade uncertainties and tariff risks cloud Taiwan’s economic outlook, a survey released yesterday by National Central University found. The biggest decline came from the timing for stock investments, which plunged 11.82 points to 26.82, underscoring bleak investor confidence, it said. “Although the TAIEX reclaimed the 21,000-point mark after the US and China agreed to bury the hatchet for 90 days, investors remain worried that the situation would turn sour later,” said Dachrahn Wu (吳大任), director of the university’s Research Center for
RSS