EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) on Wednesday reported its highest-ever net profit for the first quarter, citing strong demand during the Lunar New Year holiday and the winter vacation period.
The company in a statement said it posted NT$8.27 billion (US$262.46 million) in net profit during the January-to-March period, up from NT$5.93 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share stood at NT$1.53, compared with NT$1.10 a year earlier, it said.
The profit was a record for the first quarter and its second-highest quarterly figure, EVA Airways said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Consolidated sales in the first quarter rose 10.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$60.52 billion, with revenue generated from passenger flight operations rising 10.7 percent year-on-year to NT$40.30 billion, it said.
The peak season effects in the first quarter boosted the average load factor — an industry metric that measures percentage of passenger capacity used — to 84.1 percent, while the number of passengers the airline handled rose 10.1 percent from a year earlier, it added.
Revenue generated from cargo service operations rose 4.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$13.24 billion in the first quarter, EVA Airways said, citing global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers and semiconductors amid the AI boom.
Last week, China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) reported earnings per share of NT$0.85 for the January-to-March period, up from NT$0.69 a year earlier, while its consolidated sales rose to NT$56.997 billion from NT$52.772 billion a year earlier.
China Airlines said first-quarter earnings per share hit the second highest in the company’s history.
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