China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 華航) is planning to offer 40 percent more passenger flights this quarter than last quarter, as air travel demand is rising, the company said yesterday as it announced the launch of a Pokemon-themed jet.
The airline is planning to paint one of its Airbus A321neo planes with a livery representing the Japanese animation, video game and mobile game franchise, China Airlines told a news conference in Taipei.
Eleven Pokemon characters would be depicted on the fuselage, including Pikachu, Jigglypuff and Snorlax, while the Poke Ball, which players use to capture the characters in the games, would be depicted on the engines, the airline said.
Photo: CNA
“It is the first time that The Pokemon Co partners with a foreign airline to launch a Pokemon-themed airplane,” the company said, adding that it took about two years for the two sides to prepare for the launch.
As the COVID-19 pandemic affects air travel worldwide, the Japanese firm runs a project called “Flying Pikachu” to encourage people to regain their enthusiasm for travel, and the collaboration with CAL is part of the project, Pokemon executive Susumu Fukunaga said.
The Pokemon-themed airplane would be used for flights to North Asian and Southeast Asian destinations, China Airlines said.
It is not easy to forecast when travel demand will fully recover given the emergence of new variants of SARS-CoV-2, but demand should rise more than 40 percent this quarter, CAL president Kao Shing-hwang (高星潢) said.
The airline would steadily increase the number of passenger flights and is planning to offer more flights to London; Bali, Indonesia; and Sapporo, Japan, this quarter, Kao said.
Asked whether ticket prices would remain at a higher level than before the pandemic, Kao said prices would be determined by supply and demand, and might drop during the slow season.
The number of passenger flights would not increase drastically in the near term, the airline said, adding that it expects its air cargo business to remain stable this quarter.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
RSS