■ Aviation
Tiger to offer US$6 flights
Budget carrier Tiger Airways announced yesterday it is offering one-way fares at US$6 to its entire network of 10 cities in six Southeast Asian countries. The booking period starts today through April 1 and is valid for mid-week travel on Mondays to Thursdays from July 1 until Oct. 29. The carrier, owned by Singapore Airlines (SIA), said that the offer coincided with a celebration of the completion of its "first-phase network expansion." The airline is extending the low fares to all the cities it covers including Singapore, Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Hatyai, Phuket, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Macau, Padang and Manila. Tiger is the first budget airline to be granted landing rights for Padang, the provincial capital of West Sumatra in Indonesia.
■ Aviation
AirAsia in deal with Airbus
Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia has inked a contract to buy 60 new Airbus aircraft, with an option to purchase another 40 A320 jets as part of its regional expansion, a report said yesterday. With the order and option commitment, AirAsia in a statement to Bernama news agency said it had become the single largest customer for Airbus in the Asia-Pacific region. The airline in December said it would buy 40 Airbus aircraft and exercise an option to buy another 40 A320 jets to maintain its position as Asia's leading budget airline. AirAsia said it decided to increase the Airbus order after the rollout and the success of its Indonesian operations, PTAWAIR International (AWAIR). "Within three months of its operations, AWAIR has carried over 120,000 guests and introduced flights to five domestic destinations in Indonesia," it said.
■ Agriculture
New mad cow case
Japan's Health Ministry confirmed the country's 16th case of mad-cow disease, one day before its Food Safety Commission meets to discuss lifting a ban on US beef imports. A nine-year-old Holstein cow raised in Hokkaido and slaughtered on March 24 tested positive for mad cow, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy or BSE, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said in a statement on its Web site. Japan has screened every cow slaughtered since September 2001 when it found its first mad-cow case, and halted imports of US beef in December 2003 after a cow in Washington state was discovered to be BSE-infected.
■ Retail
Tiffany cited as target
Tiffany & Co, the largest US jewelry retailer, may be a target for a takeover, Barron's reported, citing money manager and shareholder Shawn Krevetz of Esplanade Capital in Boston. The company may fetch US$40 to US$50 a share in a takeover, Krevetz told the weekly business newspaper. He said Coach Inc would be a good match for Tiffany. Andrea Resnick, Coach's vice president of investor relations, told Barron's the company "isn't interested in making acquisitions." Other potential suitors for Tiffany included Europe's LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world's biggest luxury goods maker, Barron's said. Mark Aaron, Tiffany's vice president for investor relations, declined to comment to Barron's about "market rumors." Tiffany recently lowered its profit growth targets because of missteps in Japan, which accounted for one-fourth of the company's US$2.2 billion in sales in the fiscal year ended Jan. 31, the newspaper said.
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
Thirty Taiwanese firms, led by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), yesterday launched a silicon photonics industry alliance, aiming to accelerate the medium’s development and address the energy efficiency of artificial intelligence (AI) devices like data centers. As the world is ushering in a new AI era with tremendous demand for computing power and algorithms, energy consumption is emerging as a critical issue, TSMC vice president of integrated interconnect and packaging business C.K. Hsu (徐國晉) told a media briefing in Taipei. To solve this issue, it is essential to introduce silicon photonics and copackaged optics (CPO)
The High Court yesterday overturned a Taipei District Court decision to release Taiwan People’s Party Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and sent the case back to the lower court. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office on Saturday questioned Ko amid a probe into alleged corruption involving the Core Pacific City development project during his time as Taipei mayor. Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心), was a shopping mall in Taipei’s Songshan District (松山) that has since been demolished. On Monday, the Taipei District Court granted a second motion by Ko’s attorney to release him without bail, a decision the prosecutors’ office appealed
GRAFT PROBE: Critics questioned Ko claiming he did not know about the Core Pacific floor area ratio issue until this year, citing a 2021 video in which he was asked about it Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was released without bail early yesterday, while his deputy during his tenure as Taipei mayor was detained and held incommunicado after being questioned since Friday over graft allegations related to a shopping center redevelopment project. Prosecutors on Saturday filed a request with the Taipei District Court to officially detain Ko and former Taipei deputy mayor Pong Cheng-sheng (彭振聲) over allegations surrounding the redevelopment of Core Pacific City, also known as Living Mall (京華城購物中心). The court yesterday determined that the evidence provided by prosecutors was insufficient to justify the detention of Ko and ordered his
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