EVA Airways Corp’s (長榮航空) board of directors on Friday approved the purchase of a new Boeing Co 777F freighter jet, the airline’s latest effort to boost its cargo capacity after acquired three 777Fs last year.
EVA, which has eight Boeing 777F aircraft, is scheduled to receive its newest addition by the end of next year, it said in a statement.
The plane is to cost about US$417 million, it said.
Photo courtesy of EVA Airways Corp
“The decision [for the purchase] was made because of growth in demand for air cargo, and thus we hope to raise our freight capacity to improve competitiveness and our ability to handle risk,” EVA president Clay Sun (孫嘉明) said.
Sun cited Boeing’s forecast that the compound annual growth rate in the air freight market over the next 20 years would be 4 to 4.6 percent, while the global cargo fleet in 2040 would be 70 percent greater than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic because of sustained demand tied to the expansion of e-commerce and air freight.
“We would also consider next-generation cargo planes for our long-term flight network plans. We hope to adjust our freight network and capacity more flexibly to meet market demand,” Sun said.
EVA has hired Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd to convert three Boeing 700-300ER passenger jets into cargo planes in 2025, bringing the airline’s cargo fleet to 12, Sun said.
EVA in 2020 canceled orders for seven Boeing 787-10 Dreamliner passenger jets, replacing them with orders for three 777F cargo aircraft and four smaller 787-9 passenger jets, it said, adding that it received the cargo planes last year.
EVA reported NT$30.09 billion (US$1.01 billion) in revenue in the first quarter of the year, up 52.9 percent from a year earlier on the back of robust cargo demand. On a quarterly basis, revenue declined 12 percent, company data showed.
The airline posted net profit of NT$3.35 billion in the first three months, compared with net losses of NT$2.2 billion in the same period last year, when passenger revenue plummeted due to pandemic-related border controls.
Earnings per share were NT$0.64 last quarter, compared with losses per share of NT$0.45 a year earlier, data showed.
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