Singapore Airlines (SIA) is cutting more than 200 flights to Australia, China, Europe and India in response to falling passenger numbers, the company and travel agents said yesterday.
Faced with the global economic slowdown, the carrier informed travel agents this week that 214 flights in all would be cut between now and March.
It said on Thursday that last month’s passenger numbers were down 7.5 percent year-on-year.
COST BURDEN
“We don’t want to be flying half-empty planes around the world any longer than we have to, because it increases our cost burden at a time when we can least afford that,” company spokesman Stephen Forshaw said.
“We want to make sure we match changes in capacity with the changes in demand that are occurring as a result of the economic slowdown,” Forshaw said.
Agents said flights would be cut between now and March to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Mumbai, New Delhi, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, London and Zurich.
SIA said on Thursday it carried 1.61 million passengers last month, compared with 1.74 million in December 2007.
It also filled almost 80 percent of seats, down 4.4 percentage points year-on-year.
FEELING THE PINCH
The city-state’s flag carrier said in November that net profit for the fiscal second quarter ending September fell 36.2 percent from the previous year, as the airline felt the pinch from the economic downturn.
Alicia Seah, a senior vice president at CTC Holidays travel agency, said many Singaporeans were opting for closer and cheaper holiday destinations such as Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.
“What we see is that passengers are slowing down after Chinese New Year,” Seah said. “They are tightening their belts.”
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
RSS