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.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
Singapore-based ride-hailing and delivery giant Grab Holdings Ltd has applied for regulatory approval to acquire the Taiwan operations of Germany-based Delivery Hero SE's Foodpanda in a deal valued at about US$600 million. Grab submitted the filing to the Fair Trade Commission on Friday last week, with the transaction subject to regulatory review and approval, the company said in a statement yesterday. Its independent governance structure would help foster a healthy and competitive market in Taiwan if the deal is approved, Grab said. Grab, which is listed on the NASDAQ, said in the filing that US-based Uber Technologies Inc holds about 13 percent of
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
Memory chip stocks extended their losses yesterday after Alphabet Inc’s Google publicized research that could allow more efficient use of the storage needed for artificial intelligence (AI) development. SK Hynix Inc and Samsung Electronics Co, South Korean leaders in the market, fell more than 6 percent and about 5 percent respectively in Seoul. In the US, Micron Technology Inc, Western Digital Corp and Sandisk Corp slid more than 2 percent in pre-market trading, after they all closed lower on Wednesday. Memory companies have been on a tear in recent months as the rapid development of AI infrastructure triggered a spike in chip
RSS