The nation’s four major international carriers — China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空), Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) and Tigerair Taiwan Ltd (台灣虎航) — reported record sales last month, helped by three holiday weekends during the month.
CAL said its consolidated sales rose 5.7 percent from a year earlier to NT$18.11 billion (US$583.2 million), benefiting from an increase in passenger demand helped by the holidays.
Last month, there were three long weekends: Oct. 4 to 6, Mid-Autumn Festival; Oct. 10 to 12, Double Ten National Day; and Oct. 25 to 26, Taiwan Restocession Day.
Photo: Wu Liang-yi, Taipei Times
CAL said sales generated from its passenger flights rose 8.98 percent from a year earlier to NT$10.99 billion, also an October record, with demand for flights to Australia particularly strong.
Its load factor — an industry metric that measures percentage of passenger capacity used — on Australian routes topped 90 percent last month.
Demand for travel to Japan and South Korea was also strong, and growth is expected to continue this month, as about 90 percent of available seats to Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Seoul and Busan are booked, the airline said.
With Taiwan’s exports, paced by artificial intelligence (AI) servers and other electronic items, continuing to boom, CAL’s cargo revenue also rose 3.32 percent from a year earlier to NT$5.55 billion.
CAL said the fourth quarter is a traditional peak season for cargo services, and revenue growth is expected to continue.
EVA Air said its consolidated sales rose 3.66 percent year-on-year to NT$18.90 billion, with revenue from passenger flights and cargo services hitting NT$11.95 billion and NT$4.70 billion respectively.
The airline said the three holiday weekends lifted its passenger sales as its load factor to destinations in Europe nearly hit 90 percent last month.
At the same time, AI server and semiconductor shipments gave a boost to its cargo service revenue during the month, it said.
Meanwhile, Starlux Airlines said its consolidated sales rose 19 percent from a year earlier to about NT$3.70 billion, while Tigerair Taiwan posted consolidated sales of NT$1.57 billion, up 20.3 percent from a year earlier as its average load factor surpassed 86 percent.
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