■ Airlines
Qantas alliance blocked
Australian and New Zealand regulators rejected a plan by Qantas Airways Ltd to pay NZ$550 million (US$300 million) for a stake in Air New Zealand, calling it "highly anti-competitive." The decision undermines plans by the biggest airlines in the two nations to cut costs by uniting to control 90 percent of air traffic. "Passengers will be denied choice and increased air fares will be inevitable," said Allan Fels, chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Qantas needs to cut costs to fend off a challenge from Richard Branson's Virgin Blue Airlines Pty in Australia and to cope with a plunge in air travel, aggravated by the outbreak of a deadly virus in Asia. Air New Zealand, rescued from bankruptcy in 2001 by a government bailout, says it may find it difficult to compete with a challenge from Qantas in its home market.
■ Tourism
Thailand urges local travel
Thailand urged citizens to travel locally this month during the nation's biggest festival season to compensate for a loss of earnings as a deadly virus outbreak prompts overseas travelers to stay home. Thailand this week cut its tourist revenue forecast for this year to 340 billion baht (US$7.9 billion) from 360 billion baht as visitors cancel trips because of the spread of the respiratory illness. "Thais should go out and travel," Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak told reporters. "They should not panic about the disease. The government has taken steps to control it." The disease has taken more than a hundred lives worldwide, mostly in Asia. Thailand said this month it would "discourage" tours from affected areas, and asked visitors from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam to wear masks and to isolate themselves for two weeks. To attract locals, Thai tour operators plan to cut rates for package tours by as much as 40 percent starting next month, Tourism Minister Sontaya Kunplome.
■ Concord
BA plans to retire fleet
British Airways Plc, Europe's biggest airline, plans to retire its Concorde supersonic jetliner fleet in October as slowing economies and conflict in Iraq hurt demand for its premium trans-Atlantic flights. Air France also said it will end Concorde flights on Oct. 31. "Bringing forward Concorde's retirement is a prudent business decision," said British Airways Chief Executive Rod Eddington in a Regulatory News Service statement. "While the threat of war and resulting military conflict have had a further impact on premium travel demand, the decision to retire Concorde has been based on a long-term revenue and cost trend rather than recent events."
■ Unemployment
Jobs in Australia vanish
Australia's unemployment rate jumped to 6.2 percent in March and economists say it may go higher as a deadly respiratory disease reduces tourism, forcing companies such as Qantas Airways Ltd to fire workers. The economy unexpectedly shed 42,800 jobs, all of them full-time, and the unemployment rate rose from 6 percent in February, as consumer confidence fell to a two-year low because of the war in Iraq and a drought across more than two-thirds of the country. The Australian Tourism Commission said this week international arrivals had fallen as much as 20 percent in the past three weeks because of the disease and war in Iraq.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
MORE RESPONSIBILITY: Draftees would be expected to fight alongside professional soldiers, likely requiring the transformation of some training brigades into combat units The armed forces are to start incorporating new conscripts into combined arms brigades this year to enhance combat readiness, the Executive Yuan’s latest policy report said. The new policy would affect Taiwanese men entering the military for their compulsory service, which was extended to one year under reforms by then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in 2022. The conscripts would be trained to operate machine guns, uncrewed aerial vehicles, anti-tank guided missile launchers and Stinger air defense systems, the report said, adding that the basic training would be lengthened to eight weeks. After basic training, conscripts would be sorted into infantry battalions that would take
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
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