Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) is to lease six A321neo aircraft as it eyes expansion amid a tourism boom.
The airline plans to spend about NT$2.16 billion (US$67.51 million) on each of the first three planes, which would be leased from GY Aviation Lease 2405 Co, Starlux said in a statement.
The price of the other three planes is still being negotiated and would be disclosed after an agreement is signed, it said.
Photo: CNA
A Starlux prospectus posted in June on the Taiwan Stock Exchange said that as of the end of May, the airline had a fleet of 22 passenger planes — 13 A321neos, five A350-900s and four A330neos.
The airline is expected to take delivery of an additional five planes by the end of this year to boost its fleet to 27, the prospectus said.
The airline would introduce its first A350-1000 aircraft next year to serve long-haul routes to the US, it said.
Starlux launched direct flights between Taipei and Seattle on Friday. The airline also flies to Los Angeles and San Francisco in the US, which are among more than 20 destinations overall, including Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Hong Kong.
On Oct. 27, the airline is to launch daily flights between Taichung and Phu Quoc Island in Vietnam on its A321neo planes.
Next month, it is to begin five weekly flights between Taipei and Jakarta, also on the A321neos.
With a resurgence in tourism following the end of COVID-19 restrictions, Starlux posted NT$900 million in net profit in the first half of this year, up 172 percent from a year earlier. Earnings per share were NT$0.39 in the period, up NT$0.21 from a year earlier.
The carrier’s consolidated sales for the first six months surged 65 percent from a year earlier to NT$16.33 billion.
Last month, Starlux posted NT$3.47 billion in consolidated sales, up 53 percent from a year earlier and 13 percent from a month earlier to set a new high for the month.
Revenue from its passenger flight operations was about NT$3.03 billion last month and the company posted NT$301 million in sales from its cargo flights, up 122 percent from a year earlier, largely due to demand for transportation of gadgets related to an artificial intelligence boom.
At an annual meeting in June, Starlux chairman Chang Kuo-wei (張國煒) said that the carrier aimed to eliminate its cumulative losses of more than NT$11.5 billion in three years.
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